
Class 

Book 

CopyrightN°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BAPTIST DOCTRINES 



Addresses Delivered at the North 
American Pre~Convention Conference 



DES MOINES, IOWA 
June 21, 1921 



BAPTIST DOCTRINES 






Addresses Delivered at the North 
American Pre-Convention Conference 



DES MOINES, IOWA 
June 21, 1921 






Copyrighted by 

J. C. MASSEE 

1921 



JUH 27 1921 



CU617489 



CONTENTS. 

■ 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword 5 

By Curtis Lee Laws, D.D., Editor of "The Watch- 
man-Examiner." 

I. Opening Address 7 

By Eev. J. C. Massee, D.D., President of the 
Des Moines Conference. 

II. Jesus and the Old Testament 25 

By Rev. J. R. Sampey, D.D., LL.D., Professor in 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

III. The Authenticity and Authority of the New 
Testament 55 

By Rev. Jacob Heinrich, D.D., Vice President, 
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 
Chicago, 111. 

IV. The Cross and the Critics 71 

By Rev. T. T. Shields, D.D., Pastor, Jarvis 

Street Baptist Church, Toronto, Canada. 

V. The Proof of the Resurrection 85 

By Rev. D. F. Rittenhouse, D.D., Pastor First 
Baptist Church, Columbus, Ohio. 

VI. The Return of the Lord '. . 105 

By Rev. W. B. Hinson, D.D., LL.D., Pastor East 
Side Baptist Church, Portland, Ore. 

VII. The Supreme Passion of the Gospel 135 

By Rev. Lee Scarborough, D.D., President South- 
western Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort 
Worth, Texas. 



FOREWORD 

The Movement represented by the Conferences on Baptist 
Fundamentals in giving new emphasis to Christian doctrine 
is seeking to put first things first. We would not concern 
ourselves too exclusively with the first principles of Chris- 
tianity but would the rather go on to perfection. It is well 
that we should remind ourselves however, that we are to leave 
these first principles only as a tree leaves its roots and as a 
house leaves its foundations. The greater the tree the more 
deeply the roots must sink into the soil. The greater the 
house the stronger the foundations must be. 

Thoughtful people will agree that in our day the roots of 
Christianity are being tampered with and the foundations 
of Christianity are being undermined. While realizing that 
roots are not trees and foundations are not super structures, 
we ought also to realize that to cut the roots and undermine 
the foundations of Christianity is master strategy upon the 
part of the devil. Such work is done underground and too 
often the Lord's husbandmen and the Lord's builders are un- 
aware of the purpose or even the presence of this hidden 
and powerful enemy.. It is the primary purpose of these 
Conferences on Fundamentals to raise the danger signal and to 
plead with our Baptist people everywhere to contend earnestly 
for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. 

But after all does not such constantly reiterated insistence 
upon the fundamental doctrines distract our minds and di- 
vert our attention from the ever widening tasks of Chris- 
tianity? Exactly the contrary is true. A wide outlook de- 
mands a firm footing. It is only when the mountain climber 
has his feet on solid ground that he can afford to look up and 
around. But those interested in the preservation and forma- 
tion of the fundamentals of our holy faith must not abandon 
the implements of work for the weapons of war. If swords 
are to be found at our side, trowels must be found in our 
hands. It is essential that we safeguard the principles of 
Christianity but it is likewise essential that we carry the mes- 
sage of saving grace and redeeming power to the earth's re- 
motest bounds. Contenders for the faith of Christ who are not 



promoters of the cause of Christ are a dead weight to be 
carried by true evangelists and contenders for the faith who 
fail to manifest the spirit of their Lord are actually injuring 
the Cause for which they would willingly die. Baptist funda- 
mentalists must live close to Christ and prove themselves 
patterns of holiness and self-sacrifice. 

From time to time our Baptist fathers put forth confessions 
of faith, thus declaring and defining their principles. Not 
creeds to which they demanded allegiance, but standards about 
which they might rally. Has not the time come when Baptists 
once again should announce to the world their beliefs, when a 
standard should once again be raised? But are not all such 
confessions in some sense a violation of the principles of soul 
liberty, a principle dear to the hearts of our people? We de- 
sire here to declare that this matter of soul liberty is being 
tremendously overworked by some who reject the very princi- 
ples of those who died to make soul liberty the heritage of 
our age. Originally this principle guaranteed to men the 
right to worship God as they pleased. It emphasized the 
fact that in the Christian economy no man or group of men 
could exercise authority over the conscience of the humblest 
man on earth. Our Baptist fathers had a very clearly de- 
fined system of truth, and this was put forth in many noble 
confessions of faith. They knew no soul liberty which guar- 
anteed to members of Baptist churches the right to believe 
what they pleased. To reject fundamental Baptist principles 
and practices while remaining a member of a Baptist Church 
and to use the doctrine of soul liberty in extenuation of such 
a course is to pervert the doctrine and to make it a menace 
to the Church of Christ. 

The Movement for promoting the fundamentals of our holy 
faith is just beginning. It aims to be constructive rather than 
destructive. It seeks to unite our Denomination rather than to 
divide it. It calls upon Baptists everywhere to rally to our 
age-long and time-honored principles. The Movement will put 
forth a literature of its own. This volume contains the addresses 
delivered at the second of our general conferences. These ad- 
dresses manifest a fine, tolerant spirit while expressing in no 
uncertain way a genuine devotion to the Word of God. 

The Watchman-Examiner. Curtis Lee Laws. 

New York City. 



CHAPTER I 
OPENING ADDRESS 

BY 
REV. J. C. MASSEE, D.D. 



OPENING ADDRESS 

?^j$INCE the first Pre-Convention Conference at 
^>^\ Buffalo a year has passed. That this year has 
/ss-^ been in Baptist circles one of quickened de- 
nominational interest none would question. That new 
emphases have been placed upon doctrine, a new scru- 
tiny on denominational policies, a new sense of re- 
sponsibility concerning the denominational program 
and a serious realization of an urgent necessity to 
settle some of the things that have divided us in 
sentiment and threatened to divide us in service, we 
are all aware. 

The year has not only been rich in discussion, it 
has been fruitful in the clarifying of vision and in 
the analyzing of our denominational situation. It has 
become increasingly apparent that we are threatened 
with a threefold line of cleavage in the denominational 
life and that if we are to preserve the solidarity of our 
denominational structure and the co-operation of the 
denominational family through this Convention there 
must be a new welding undertaken along these three 
lines of cleavage. Ranking in importance these are 
First, the Doctrinal; Second, the Educational; Third, 
the Ecclesiastical. 

The Doctrinal 

It is feared by many that the Baptist churches have 
in some measure become freethinkers' clubs, the pas- 
tor, in some cases at least, being the apostle and high 
priest of creedal license. There is a wide-spread prop- 



10 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

aganda to the effect that we can have and must have 
no doctrinal test of fellowship, since so-called theo- 
logical differences are not vital. The great doctrines 
cherished by Baptists in the past are so far discred- 
ited by some that they are now declared to be the 
mere opinions of men ; the men who formulated them 
belonging to the past while we belong to the present. 
In the living present, we are told, if we do not actually 
discredit the doctrines of the past we must refuse them 
any authority in our lives and our denominational pol- 
icies or in determining our fellowship and co-opera- 
tion in service. We are gravely, seriously, constantly, 
earnestly urged to co-operation in service without 
regard to differences in doctrine. We are soberly in- 
formed that religious experiences are everywhere the 
same though religious explanations may be totally 
different. Too frequently religion is substituted for 
Christ. If we may credit some of our denominational 
spokesmen and leaders then it makes no difference at 
all whether Christ was the Son of God or the son of 
Joseph, whether He died as moral example or as 
sinner's substitute. Whether He arose from the dead 
bodily or only in idea. Whether He ascended bodily 
into the heaven or His spiritual remains live in the 
moral atmosphere of the world. Whether His return 
is to be a literal one in fulfillment of oft-repeated 
prophecies or a spiritual embodiment of His ideals in 
the mass of mankind. 

We are urged to believe that our conceptions of the 
nature, purpose and destiny of the church, though 
radically different, should make no difference in our 
co-operative service or in the program of that service. 
Men who believe that the church is a divine organ- 
ism, a living body of which Christ is the head, are 



OPENING ADDEESS 11 

both expected and urged to unite in service with men 
who believe the church to be only a human organi- 
zation, one with other beneficent institutions set for 
the betterment of the world, who would make its pro- 
gram largely an educational and social betterment one. 
There are leaders among us who discredit all eschato- 
logical teachings. In some quarters it has come to be 
a moral disgrace to hold any doctrinal convictions 
about the future life and the prophetic Kingdom of 
Heaven. On the other hand there are some to whom 
doctrinal convictions are the very essence of life and 
to whom eschatological questions have a vital place 
in doctrine. These believe that Solomon knew and 
told the truth when he said "As a man thinketh in 
his heart so is he" and that Paul understood the 
seriousness of the thing declared when he wrote "We 
have believed therefore have we spoken." He surely 
believed that faith alone is the base and inspiration of 
the Christian message. 

The doctrine of the inspiration of God's Word would 
seem to be of vital concern. It has at last become a 
matter of division among us. Without doctrinal co- 
hesion there can be no denominational co-operation. 
Close and continued fellowship seems impossible be- 
tween those who on the one hand believe the Bible 
to be the very Word of God inspired, inerrant and 
authoritative, and those who consider it inspired only 
in the same measure as are other books, the result of 
evolutionary process of human thought, and for the 
most part a pollyglot combination of material ef- 
fected by some unknown compiler or compilers, thus 
giving us a book whose historical accuracy is untrust- 
worthy, whose authorship is unauthentic and whose 
authority in the church is altogether problematical. 



12 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

Baptists have through the ages boasted that they are 
men of the Book. A "thus saith the Lord" has ever 
been accepted as the final test of our faith, our duty 
and our polity. Are we ready to abandon that posi- 
tion? 

Baptists have ever refused to subscribe to a formal 
and an authoritative creed. But Baptists have per- 
sisted through the centuries in setting forth confes- 
sions. These confessions have taken the form of state- 
ments of belief. They have entered into the organiza- 
tion of our churches. They have become part and 
parcel of their constitutions, of their life, of their 
propaganda. And they have been in the past a basis 
for fellowship between the churches as between mem- 
bers in the churches. Shall we cut down all the 
ancient landmarks? Shall we refuse to hear any 
voice from the past? Must we assume that the tra- 
ditions of the leaders always make null the will of 
God? 

To the men who promote the Fundamentals Confer- 
ences on doctrines, this seems to be a vital matter. To 
them it is an axiom of history that what men think 
determines what men are. Great convictions have 
called into being and determined the direction of 
great movements. Men have ever united themselves 
in support of a cause because its principles were dear 
to them. It would seem that the cause which demands 
of men the surrender of a supreme love, the investment 
of all possessions, the sacrifice of all ease and personal 
self-seeking and the employment of all life energies 
and activities can only hope to achieve its purpose by 
binding together its adherants with convictions of 
truth sufficiently vital to make response seem worth 
while. 



OPENING ADDRESS 13 

If it does not matter what we believe neither does 
it matter how we live. 

There is no inspiration for propaganda in doctrines 
that have no distinctive value or life producing qual- 
ity. The hope of success for the gospel lies in a 
conviction of the truth and the message of the Gos- 
pel so compelling as not only to demand but to produce 
the complete abandonment of men to its proclama- 
tion. If Baptists are to have no convictions then 
Baptists can have no future. If Baptist liberty is to 
be denned in terms of license for free-thinking, then 
is the Baptist cause already doomed in the world. 
There is nothing for man to accept, nothing for God 
to bless, and nothing for such a mongrel organization 
to do. 

It is imperative that somehow we settle our doc- 
trinal controversies. Is it possible for us to find com- 
mon base, without vital compromise, on which we 
can stand? Shall we return to the old confessions 
and reaffirm them? Shall we make new confessions 
and stand by them? Has the time not come for us 
to frankly face this question and act with firm hand 
seeking a solution for this most serious problem? 

The denominational family is now in the situation 
reported from the home of a famous Southern traveler, 
Mr. Jack Ross. Jack was a widower with four chil- 
dren who married a widow with three children. From 
this union were later born five children. One day 
when Jack and his wife were alone up-stairs in their 
home a very bedlam of noise and confusion broke out 
in the rooms below. Said Mrs. Jack to her husband, 
"For pity's sake, go down and see what is happening." 
Jack went down and after a while returned, a look of 
philosophic resignation on his face and with a similar 



14 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

tone of resignation in his voice he said to his wife, 
"My dear, it's all right, for your children and my 
children have jumped on our children and are 'rais- 
ing Cain.' That is all the trouble." Of course, you 
will understand there is a limit to such a disturbance. 
To-day in the denominational family the children of 
her conservative doctrines and the children of her 
radical doctrines are rather seriously bruising her 
children of service. A period must be put to these 
controversies. 

The Educational 

Lying at the root of our doctrinal differences are 
the teachings permitted in our denominational schools. 
Time was when Baptist schools stood for the defense 
of Baptist faith, whether those schools were secondary 
schools, colleges or theological seminaries. Devoted 
men and women of God gave of their money, their life 
interests and service to the establishing, maintaining 
and endowing of these schools. Gradually they have 
grown great and now entrenched behind increasing 
endowments, and under the direct control of self-per- 
petuating Boards of Trustees they have become inde- 
pendent of denominational control and would seem to 
be impatient of denominational confessions of faith. 
Indeed, leaders among school men go so far as to as- 
sert that the rule of the dead-hand is immoral and that 
we have no right to endow institutions of learning or 
to support them to teach any particular Christian 
creed. 

The place of the Bible in denominational schools has 
been reduced to a minimum, and the scramble for stu- 
dents has made us afraid to be enough sectarian to re- 
main denominational. There is a distressing story of 
a young girl who attended one of the schools listed 



OPENING ADDRESS 15 

in the Northern Baptist Convention annual who, after 
her graduation, while preparing to return to her home, 
was packing her trunk. She discovered, as is fre- 
quently the case, that through the year an accumula- 
tion of things had swelled the proportions of her pos- 
sessions. She was unable to put all her impedimenta 
in the trunks. Casting about for some things to leave 
because of their minor importance, she discovered her 
Bible lying in the tray of the trunk. She picked it up, 
threw it into the corner of the room with the remark 
"I can leave that for I no longer believe it and it has 
no place in my life." 

I speak with some feeling when I recount the fact 
that no fewer than four young people committed to my 
pastoral care have returned from a Baptist school with 
their faith shaken, their convictions upset. They had 
been given instead of certitudes, question marks. 

We need also to make distinctions in our schools 
between the teaching of the Bible itself and the teach- 
ing of the critical theories and destructive commen- 
taries about it. Let the Bible be restored to the heart 
of the school. Let Baptist youth in Baptist schools be 
taught the contents of the Bible itself. Let them come 
forth knowing its contents, instructed in its study, able 
to analyze its books, to seize upon and present its 
salient message with a profound and deep conviction 
that they are dealing with the definitely inspired rev- 
elation of the living God. Only then will we have 
done our duty to them, to their generation, and to their 
God. 

Gradually, paralleling this growth of financial inde- 
pendence and moral impatience in many of our schools, 
has crept in a laxness of doctrinal belief and a broad- 
ness of evolutionary sympathies practically destroy- 



16 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

ing the usefulness of these schools as a denominational 
asset. This situation becomes a veritable menace to 
the whole denominational structure. Our youth are 
being taught false science, and false scientific methods 
and these are given a religious character while our 
youth are being called as crusaders to propagate and 
defend this science as a sacred commission in substitu- 
tion for the Gospel which they had before believed 
and upon which we still contend the hope of the world's 
salvation depends. The scientific method now much 
in vogue is to present the Bible "without prejudice" 
and to make the only method of approach to the Bi- 
ble the laboratory method. To thoughtful minds this 
can be seen at once to be the most damning prejudice. 
Any a priori assumption that the Bible is as other liter- 
ature, that it is not of divine origin, that if inspired 
at all, inspiration means no more in the case of the 
Bible than in that of other highly moral writings, is 
an assumption antagonistic to the very character of the 
Bible. Beginning with this point of view there are all 
grades and shades of agnostic, infidel, and rationalistic 
opinions concerning the Bible. Our young men are 
teaching in the churches now as they have been taught 
in our schools, that the Bible is not accurate ; that 
its moral conceptions are shocking to civilized moral 
consciousness ; that its history is legend ; that its 
great incidents are folk lore stories ; that its supreme 
revelations are the opinions of men growing out of 
their local settings and colorings; that the value of 
the Book does not depend upon historic accuracy and 
that the Christ whom it reveals is not necessarily 
the Christ whom we trust, love and follow and that 
the God of the Bible was originally only a tribal God 
of the Hebrews. 



OPENING ADDEESS 17 

We are told that the business of the schools is not 
to make Christians, nor to train Christians as such, but 
to produce a fine type of Christian character and to 
fit men with right moral impulses to grapple with the 
problems of the world. The result has been the pro- 
jection into our Baptist ministry of many younger men 
who now deny almost in toto all the great fundamentals 
of the faith as held by the fathers and as still held by 
the majority of our churches. To leaders trained to 
regard doctrinal questions as of no importance and all 
doctrines as mere matters of opinion and of revela- 
tion as the natural result of evolutionary process, there 
can be little authority in the Bible, little consciousness 
of sin, little realization of God, and little demand for 
regenerating faith can be invoked by such preachers 
from their hearers. The result of this leadership has 
been disastrous in two directions. It has promoted a 
materialistic and worldly life in the people of the 
churches, and it has succeeded in fastening on the 
churches a program of social activities designed to 
better human conditions without changing man's re- 
lation to God. We have slipped by easy stages into 
a rather widely accepted belief in the universal father- 
hood of God, and brotherhood of man, with all the at- 
tendant evils of these pernicious doctrines. These doc- 
trines have been accepted in substitution for the Gos- 
pel of individual salvation and of a spiritual regen- 
eration. 

It would seem apparent to all that if the schools 
be permitted to continue their drift from the land- 
marks of the faith they are discounting and discredit- 
ing all Baptist doctrines. If they can continue their 
promulgation of a theory of liberty to believe and teach 
what they will without reference to the things com- 



18 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

monly accepted among us, soon the whole denomina- 
tion will be won over to the new theory, or we shall 
have been driven upon the rock which will divide our 
forces and make impossible our co-operation in Chris- 
tian service, if not our continuance in denominational 
conventional fellowship. 

Our youth are clamoring for education. Our church- 
es require trained leadership. Our duty to God and 
to man demands of us that we fit our children with a 
training adequate to the demands of the gospel in 
the coming generation. What are we to do ? How are we to 
carry on in the face of our present difficulty ? We are being 
wounded in the house of our friends. We have tried long 
enough to evade the issue. Some of us cannot escape the 
conviction that we must go forward to force this issue 
now lest the faith we hold be destroyed from the earth. 
We have had every sort of compromise proposed but the 
consideration of each one of them leaves us reminded 
anew of the story which came back from the war con- 
cerning the conversation of the negro private with his 
young captain on the eve of battle. Said the captain 
to the private, "George, what are you so afraid for?" 
"Yes sir, captain" said the boy, "I am not afraid, 
Sir, only when I goes over the top." Said the captain 
to him, "You need not be frightened, just remember 
that all these German bullets are dumdums and they 
come in a zig-zag course. All you have to do is to 
run zig-zag and you will miss the bullets and they 
will miss you." Some days later the captain passing 
through the field hospital found George rather severely 
wounded, bandaged and, of course, confined to his bed. 
He approached him and said, "What's the matter, 
George, how did all this happen?" "Well, Sir, captain," 
replied the boy, "the only trouble was that I zigged 



OPENING ADDRESS 19 

when I ought to have zagged." We have reached 
the opinion that there is no use to zig any more, for 
we invariably zig when we ought to zag on the doc- 
trinal, the educational and ecclesiastical problems of 
our denomination. If the time is not now, it must 
soon come when by formal action we shall determine a 
basis of fellowship in faith and in service for our Bap- 
tist churches. 

Two proposals are made: First, that we divorce 
the educational apportionment from our New World 
Movement, put all the emphasis of our Convention 
endeavor on the missionary and evangelistic enter- 
prises purely and simply. That we make more drastic 
our examination of candidates for the mission field and 
leave the schools to their own devices and their in- 
dividual appeal to the denomination for support. We 
can then the better debate as to the merits of individ- 
ual schools for support. Our mission enterprises will 
not be hindered and our churches will be held together 
at least on this major program of co-operation as they 
cannot be held together while the educational program 
now involved holds the middle of the stage and the 
right of way. 

The second proposal is that we continue the educa- 
tional policy now in vogue but adopt a statement of 
belief to which all teachers in all Baptist educational 
institutions shall be required to give annual assent in 
writing, cutting off from denominational support and 
sponsorship all schools refusing such fellowship of 
faith. 

At Denver a curious thing happened. Up till the 
meeting of the Denver Convention the Educational 
Board of the Northern Baptist Convention had never 
received enough money from the churches to carry 



20 BAPTIST DOCTKINES 

itself. Year after year it had invariably come back to 
the societies for payment of its deficits, but at Denver 
under the astute leadership of two or three men in- 
terested primarily in the educational program it success- 
fully induced the Convention to commit itself to turn 
over to the Board of Education and the schools under 
its influence and direction, thirty and two-tenth per 
cent, of all monies raised through the New World 
Movement. But this program over-reached itself. 
More than half of the churches in the Convention are 
refusing to co-operate. Only about 1800 of the church- 
es out of the 8000 in the Convention have as many as 
fifty per cent, of the members contributing at all in 
support of this movement. From reasons perhaps to- 
tally different from those impelling the Fundamentals 
Committee, Mr. Rockefeller has withdrawn from the 
$100,000,000. fund $15,000,000. reported by the Board 
of Promotion last year at Buffalo. It is understood 
that this action was taken because Mr. Rockefeller 
and those interested with him, believe that the schools 
should be dealt with separately. Whatever the reason, 
the action is not only justified, but is imperatively de- 
sirable. And if the Rockefeller interests may follow 
this course without losing cast with our denomination- 
al leaders why may not a Baptist minister or church 
have the same privilege? 

The Ecclesiastical 

Finally, there are anxieties about our ecclesiastical 
organization — not so much about the organization it- 
self as concerning the tendencies of the organization. 
There is a frequently expressed anxiety lest the Board 
of Promotion become a Board of Control undertaking 
coercive measures to force co-operation in its pro- 



OPENING ADDRESS 21 

gram and obedience to its mandate. Some have suf- 
fered, or have imagined they have suffered, in this re- 
spect. It is charged that denominational secretaries 
and officers refuse recognition and endorsement of 
ministers who have not been able to co-operate in full. 
There is a noticeable pernicious activity on the part of 
the same secretaries and officers to keep brethren out 
of Baptist pastorates on account of their conservative 
doctrinal views so that men are intimidated in their 
ministry and are led to compromise their message. It 
should be remembered that Baptist churches are inde- 
pendent each of the other save in so far as they vol- 
untarily co-operate. Any coercive measures are antag- 
onistic to the Baptist principles and obnoxious to the 
Baptist constituency. Any program presented to the 
churches which cannot win its way by its inherent 
reasonableness and righteousness must not be put 
forward by any coercive measures whatever. There is 
a grave anxiety lest we entrench a denominational pow- 
er behind great endowments, established precendents, 
conventional authority and the prestige of patronage 
coupled with activities and influences of an army of 
agents supported by the denomination. We may eas- 
ily erect an ecclesiastical machine which will by sheer 
weight of its machinery and educational program so 
far dominate the ministers of the denomination as to 
put in jeopardy the freedom of the Gospel itself. We 
would not cry wolf either too soon or needlessly. But 
the liberties of no people have ever been lost sudden- 
ly. The gradual building of the organization, the grad- 
ual establishment of precedent, the gradual creation of 
influence, the gradual assumption of authority have 
preceded the moment when bureaucracy ascended the 
throne of democracy and liberty sang her swan song. 



22 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

The tendency of the present day, the insistent views 
of many leaders in the religious world is toward the 
coercion of individualism by the sheer weight of mass 
movements under the leadership of a centralized au- 
thority. Of this tendency we may well beware. The 
association of Baptist churches is at best a confederacy. 
Baptists have ever maintained the right of self-deter- 
mination. They have ever been the spokesman of in- 
dividualism. The denominational leaders in office need 
to be warned that any effort or any indication of an 
effort toward a centralization of authority or the use 
of coercion will at once not only arouse resentment but 
provoke revolt from their leadership. To this end they 
also need to be advised that men of every phase of 
theological views within the denomination must be 
given recognition on denominational programs and in 
denominational conventions. 

We still pray for a basis of fraternity, for that pur- 
ity of heart and clarity of vision that will enable us 
to see eye to eye, for that oneness of relation to Jesus 
Christ our Lord which will enable us to work togeth- 
er in the extension not of our program but of His pro- 
gram in the world. 

An increasing materialism, a degenerating immo- 
rality, a pernicious rationalism are putting a spiritual 
blight upon the world. Antichristian organizations 
and movements, pseudo-Christian doctrines are being 
made the bases of wide-spread propaganda. Rapidly 
growing anti-christian religious cults are deceiving 
the guileless. Spiritism, pantheism, socialism, occult- 
ism, the vain deceits of many philosophies, the mani- 
fold wisdom of this world, are all in an unholy alliance 
to spread a spiritual blight over the souls of men unto 
their destruction the world over. To assuage this 



OPENING ADDRESS 23 

rising tide of death and destruction, the church has 
but one recourse. She must repent of her apostasy. 
She must return to the Lord. She must bring forth 
works meet for repentance and demonstrate once again 
her first love for the Saviour. The Word of God 
must be reinstated in the hearts and homes of His peo- 
ple. The gospel "which is the power of God unto 
salvation to everyone who believes," must be sound- 
ed forth with a new clarion note of an inspired au- 
thority. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ must 
be exalted as in ancient days. The Christian world 
must learn again and frequent the path to the secret 
place of prayer. Family altars must be rebuild'ed. We 
must tear down the altars dedicated to the worship 
of a false science in our schools and train our youth 
of to-day for a spiritual leadership to-morrow. 

Your brethren on the Committee on Conferences 
on the Fundamentals earnestly and affectionately 
voice to you the wish that a new stimulation of in- 
terest in right doctrine, a new devotion to the preach- 
ing of the old gospel, a new yielding of authority 
and reverence to the Word of the revealing God, may 
promote among us throughout the whole world a re- 
vival, in which both the churches and the world shall 
realize anew the presence and the favor of God and 
the redeeming and sanctifying power of His Chris* 
and ours. 



CHAPTER II 
JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 

BY 

REV. J. R. SAMPEY, D.D., LL.D. 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 

^wT|jHO was Jesus? A hundred answers are pos- 
(i iQ 1/ sible, every one containing an element of 
4J££sl» truth. He was the Prophet of Nazareth, the 
son of Mary. He was the Son of Man, a title He 
chose for Himself, indicating His thorough human- 
ity and at the same time pointing to His Messiah- 
ship. He was the Son of God in a unique sense, the 
Only Begotten, entitled to call God His Father as no 
other man could properly claim sonship to Deity. I 
am happy to agree perfectly with every one of the 
New Testament writers in his estimate of our Lord 
Jesus. 

It is a beautiful picture of His activities which Mark 
has given to the world. In this Gospel our Lord is 
the strong Son of God who goes about doing good 
and delivering those who are oppressed by the devil. 
He was acclaimed as God's Beloved Son at His bap- 
tism. He affirmed that He had authority on earth to 
forgive sins, and that He is Lord even of the Sabbath 
day. Mark represents Jesus as saying that the Son 
of Man would come in clouds, with great power and 
glory. The story of our Lord's life in the Gospel of 
Mark is carried forward to the hour of His victory 
in the resurrection from the dead. If we had only the 
Gospel of Mark, we could gather from its record of 
the deeds and words of Jesus enough to establish His 
Lordship over all creation. As to the first Gospel, it 
will be sufficient to recall two passages, Matthew 11: 



28 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

25-29; 28:18-20. In the first of these passages we are 
reminded of the Gospel of John. Jesus claims an in- 
timacy with the Father similar to that described so 
perfectly in the Gospel of John. He offers Himself as 
the Teacher of men, and promises rest for the soul. 
No mere man could properly use words like these. In 
the Great Commission, Jesus says, "All authority both 
in heaven and in earth has been given to me," and He 
links Himself with the Father and the Holy Spirit in 
the baptismal formula. He also affirms that He will 
be with all His followers to the end of the age as 
they go forth to disciple the nations. Luke's Gospel 
opens with the virgin birth and closes with the ascen- 
sion of our Lord through the clouds to His seat on 
high. The patience and grace and gentleness of our 
Lord are wonderfully portrayed in Luke's story. To 
him Jesus was the Saviour of mankind, infinitely com- 
passionate unto sinners, especially outcasts like the 
publicans and harlots. 

James, author of the Epistle, and probably the 
brother of Jesus, called himself a "bondservant of God 
and of the Lord Jesus Christ." James thus lifts Jesus 
to the rank of Deity, and confesses himself a slave of 
the Lord Jesus. Jude also introduces himself as a 
bondservant of Jesus Christ. For Peter the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus from the dead meant everything. While 
Jesus lay in the tomb Peter was in despair ; but when 
he met Jesus face to face after the resurrection he 
came into an experience of life and hope and victory 
that could only be likened to a resurrection from death 
to life. He speaks of our Lord Jesus as being "on 
the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, 
angels and authorities and powers being made sub- 
ject to Him" (I Peter 3:22). It is perfectly manifest 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 29 

that the author of II Peter regarded Jesus as God, 
"Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, 
to those who have obtained an equally precious faith 
with us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour 
Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you, 
in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" 
(II Peter 1:1,2). 

Paul thus describes the Redeemer of men : "Who is 
the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every 
creature ; because in Him were all things created, in 
the heavens, and on the earth, the visible and the 
invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or 
authorities ; all things have been created through Him, 
and for Him ; and He is before all things, and in Him 
all things hold together. And He is the Head of 
the Body, the Church ; who is the beginning, the 
first-born from the dead ; in order that He may become 
in all things pre-eminent. Because it pleased the 
Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell ; 
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, 
having made peace through the blood of His cross ; 
through Him, whether the things on the earth, or 
the things in the heavens" (Col. 1:15-20). Paul's esti- 
mate of our Lord Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11, guaran- 
tees His deity as well as His humanity. "Have this 
mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, 
existing in the form of God, accounted not the being 
on an equality with God a thing to be grasped ; but 
emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becom- 
ing in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion 
as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to 
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore also 
God highly exalted Him, and gave Him the name 
which is above every name ; that in the name of Je- 



30 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

sus every knee should bow, of beings in heaven, and 
of beings on earth, and of beings under the earth, and 
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
glory of God the Father." 

The author of the letter to the Hebrews gives us 
at the outset his conception of our Lord. "God, hav- 
ing in many parts and in many ways spoken of old 
to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days spoke 
to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all 
things, through whom He also made the ages ; who, 
being the brightness of His glory and the impress of 
His substance, and upholding all things by the word 
of His power, when He had made a purification of 
sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty 
on high ; having become so much superior to the 
angels as He has inherited a more excellent name 
than they" (Heb. 1:1-4). 

The transition to the Gospel of John is quite easy. 
The doctrine of the Logos may sound somewhat phil- 
osophical, but the conception of the nature and dignity 
of the Lord Jesus is substantially the same as that of 
Paul and the other New Testament writers. Let us 
refresh our memory of the prologue of John's Gospel : 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God. All things were 
made through Him ; and apart from Him was nothing 
made that has been made. In Him was life; and the 
life was the light of men. And the Word became 
flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth ; and 
we beheld His glory, a glory as of the only begotten 
from the Father. John testifies of Him; and cries, 
saying, This was He of whom I said, He that comes 
after me has become before me, because He was 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 31 

before me. Because out of His fullness we all re- 
ceived, and grace for grace. For the law was given 
through Moses ; grace and truth came through Jesus 
Christ. No one has ever seen God ; God only-begotten, 
who is in the bosom of the Father, He declared Him" 
(John 1:1-4, 14-18). 

If we may sum up in plain words the substance 
of the New Testament teaching as to the person of our 
Lord Jesus, it would run about as follows : 

The Son of God, existing in the form of God and 
in perfect fellowship with the Father, freely sur- 
rendered Himself to the task of redeeming men from 
sin. Though He was rich in His heavenly state, He 
freely emptied Himself of His heavenly glory, and 
became flesh, being born of the virgin Mary and 
brought up in comparative poverty in the home of the 
carpenter of Nazareth. He became man in the fullest 
sense of the word, possessing a human body and a 
human mind. He was subject to temptation like all 
other men, and won a complete victory over the 
tempter throughout every period of His earthly 
career. He died on the cross as our Redeemer, suffer- 
ing in our stead and' purchasing our redemption by 
His blood. He rose from the dead on the third morn- 
ing, and after forty days ascended to the right hand 
of the Majesty on high. He describes Himself as the 
Son of Man, the Messiah of the Jews, the Saviour of 
mankind. He is in possession of all authority in Heav- 
en and in earth, and is winning men back to fellowship 
with the Father. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was 
sent down to carry forward in the hearts of His fol- 
lowers the work of human redemption. The mission- 
ary program which He projected continues to the 
present day and will continue until His return the 



32 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

second time on clouds of glory. This is the person 
whose attitude to the Old Testament we wish to in- 
vestigate. If we can discover what He thought of the 
Old Testament and what He taught concerning it, it 
would seem that for all Christians some questions 
would be settled. 

But an objector may suggest that the knowledge of 
Jesus in the days of His flesh was limited : might He 
not therefore be mistaken in His estimate of the He- 
brew Scriptures? If in so fundamental a matter our 
Lord could make mistakes, surely His authority as a 
religious teacher would be seriously undermined. He 
could not be all that the New Testament writers think 
Him to be, if it could be proved that He was mistaken 
in His teaching concerning the Scriptures which 
foretold His death and resurrection. We might readily 
grant that our Lord Jesus, during His earthly min- 
istry, did not have in His human mind knowledge 
concerning all the scientific achievements of recent 
centuries and many other matters that had nothing to 
do with His mission to earth. But it would be a 
serious thing indeed for Him not to know the truth 
about the Old Testament Scriptures. In this connec- 
tion, three passages of Scripture require brief consid- 
eration, inasmuch as each of them has been quoted in 
favor of the theory that the man Jesus might have 
been ignorant as to the authorship of the Pentateuch 
and other Old Testament writings. 

We invite attention first to Luke 2:52: "And Jesus 
advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with 
God and men." Just as the body of the boy Jesus 
grew and became strong, so also His human mind ad- 
vanced in wisdom. Surely we have no reason here to 
put the emphasis on the limitation of His knowledge, 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 33 

but rather on His marvelous progress in wisdom. Luke 
describes the child Jesus as "filled with wisdom." He 
enjoyed the divine favor as no other child in history 
ever enjoyed the divine blessing. His progress in 
wisdom was rapid and unusual. He was precocious, 
in the best sense of the word. There is no hint here 
of ignorance, and the language is a thousand miles 
from intimating that He would venture to pose as a 
teacher of things He did not fully understand. 

Perhaps the most frequently quoted passage in fa- 
vor of the theory that Jesus possessed no exceptional 
knowledge in the realm of the higher criticism of the 
Old Testament and in other departments of inquiry 
is His own language as found in Mark 13 :32 and Mat- 
thew 24:36: "But concerning that day or hour no one 
knows, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, 
but the Father." Our Lord Jesus here confesses ig- 
norance of the exact hour of the end of the Messianic 
age. He affirms the fact of His return in clouds of 
glory, but frankly states that He does not know the 
exact hour. The notable thing about this passage of 
Scripture is the fact that our Lord places His knowl- 
edge above that of men and of angels. Even here He 
gives Himself a unique dignity in the realm of knowl- 
edge. His words have a value so great that they can 
not possibly pass away or fail of fulfillment. The 
three Synoptic Gospels agree in His startling claim, 
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words 
shall not pass away." Surely we are brought face 
to face here with a person who claims supernatural 
knowledge. Please let us not forget that this striking 
statement immediately preceded His confession of ig- 
norance of the exact hour of His return. Human 
frailty tempts us to speak in realms in which our 



34 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

knowledge is imperfect: our Lord Jesus expressly 
avoids an affirmation in that exalted realm of knowl- 
edge over which the Father alone presides. Jesus was 
sure of what He knew, and He was equally aware of 
the one thing, or possibly the few things, in the re- 
ligious realm to which His knowledge in the days of 
His earthly life did not attain. Taken in the light of 
the context our Lord's confession of ignorance of one 
thing really lifts Him into a class all by Himself in 
the height and depth and width of His knowledge 
of all things pertaining to religion. 

The third passage adduced to bring the knowledge 
of Jesus strictly within the confines possible to a hu- 
man teacher in the days of Tiberius Caesar is found 
in Philippians 2:5-11. It is contended by many that 
the Son of God emptied Himself of all His divine at- 
tributes, including omniscience, and that He knew no 
more than any other diligent student in religion could 
know in the time in which He lived. Let us observe 
that nothing is expressly said concerning the matter 
of knowledge in this context. Paul affirms that Christ 
Jesus existed in the form of God, and that He emptied 
Himself and took the form of a servant, became in the 
likeness of men, and that He humbled Himself even to 
the death on the cross. We may not read into this 
account of our Lord's voluntary humiliation of Him- 
self the idea that He was filled with human ignorance. 
The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. 
He was filled' with wisdom from His childhood up. 
In every stage of His life on earth He had ample wis- 
dom for all practical needs. He was at no time left 
to grope in ignorance. He freely gave up His heav- 
enly riches and honors, in order that He might lift us 
out of our poverty into His glorious wealth. During 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 35 

the period of His preparation for His public ministry 
He grew in wisdom, but at no time was He caught 
in the meshes of ignorance. His knowledge and wis- 
dom were ample for all His needs as His life-work 
unfolded. We call attention to the fact that this great 
passage in Philippians affirms the pre-existence of 
our Lord Jesus in the form of God, and that after 
His voluntary humiliation of Himself, He is highly 
exalted by God, and given the name which is above 
every name. There is not the slightest hint in the 
language of the apostle that human ignorance ever 
interfered with the truth of any statement of fact or 
doctrine by our Lord. 

If with confidence we may accept the teaching of 
our Lord Jesus in all matters on which He chooses 
to speak, let us turn our attention to His attitude to 
the Old Testament. It would be a matter of great in- 
terest, if we might know positively whether the boy 
Jesus had access to a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures. 
Of one thing we may be sure ; He was a constant at- 
tendant on the worship of the synagogue. Even de- 
spised Nazareth had a house of worship in which on 
the Sabbath day the people would assemble to hear 
the Law and the Prophets read and to offer prayer to 
the God' of Abraham. We know that it was the habit 
of Jesus to attend worship in the synagogue on the 
Sabbath day. Throughout His boyhood and young 
manhood He listened attentively every week to the 
reading of the Law and the Prophets. Possibly the 
rabbi at Nazareth taught the reverent boy how to 
read the Hebrew Scriptures. He may have had ac- 
cess to a copy of the Greek translation of the He- 
brew Bible. No one can doubt that He would seek eve- 
ry opportunity to learn more perfectly the Holy Scrip- 



36 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

tures. When as a boy of twelve He was found among 
the doctors of the law in the Temple at Jerusalem, 
He was asking questions about the meaning of the 
Scriptures. Men marveled at His wonderful insight, 
as displayed by His questions and His answers. He 
let no opportunity of learning more of the Scriptures 
go by unimproved. From His mother's lips He no 
doubt heard many of the Bible stories and reflected on 
their meaning. Even at twelve years of age He is al- 
ready conscious of a unique relation with God. He 
speaks of "My Father's house," or "My Father's busi- 
ness." 

In whatever ways Jesus may have acquired His 
knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, we know 
that when He came to Nazareth to speak to His 
neighbors and friends, He read from the roll of Isaiah 
the description of the prophet of consolation, and 
claimed that the words were fulfilled that day in Him. 
He was never at a loss as to the facts of the Old Testa- 
ment or their significance. He was conscious of being 
an authoritative interpreter of the Law and the 
Prophets. 

Our Lord gave sweeping endorsement of the He- 
brew Scriptures in the Sermon on the Mount. He 
expressly states that He did not come to destroy the 
Law or the Prophets, but the rather to complete them. 
He affirms with positiveness, "Till heaven and earth 
pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
away from the Law until all things come to pass" 
(Matt. 5:18). In John 10:35 our Lord makes an in- 
cidental and parenthetical reference to the authority 
of the Old Testament. It is evident that His own at- 
titude toward the Hebrew Scriptures here crops out 
incidentally, in connection with the quotation from 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 37 

Psalm 82 :6, "The Scriptures can not be broken," 
said Jesus. 

In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus 
exalts the value and power of the Old Testament by 
affirming, "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the 
dead" (Luke 16:31). This is a remarkable testimony 
to the sufficiency of Moses and the Prophets as God's 
means of winning men to faith in Himself. 

As Jesus drew near to the cross He interpreted to 
His disciples the Scriptures which foretold His death 
and resurrection. He constantly affirmed that the 
Scriptures must be fulfilled. Thus Jesus submitted 
Himself to the authority and power of the Scriptures 
which foretold His sufferings and death. He com- 
manded Peter in Gethsemane to return his sword into 
its place, asserting that He could call upon His Fa- 
ther, and He would send Him more than twelve le- 
gions of angels ; but in that event the Scriptures could 
not be fulfilled, and so Jesus refuses to ask the Fa- 
ther for angelic deliverers. 

In two particulars our Lord Jesus seems to have as- 
sisted in the fulfillment of specific Old Testament pre- 
dictions. He sent two disciples to bring the ass on 
which He rode in triumph into Jerusalem. This was 
done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
through the prophet, 

"Say to the daughter of Zion, 
Behold, thy King comes to thee, 
Meek, and riding on an ass, 
And on a eolt, the foal of a beast of burden" 
(Matt. 21:1-5; Zech. 9:9). 

Again, in the agony toward the close of the cruci- 
fixion, Jesus exclaims, "I thirst." Some one put a 



38 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

sponge on hyssop and brought it to His mouth. Thus 
was fulfilled the language of Psalm 69:21. 

But did Jesus find no fault with the Old Testament? 
Does He endorse all the ceremonial law and all the 
ethical standards of all the leaders in Israel's history? 
In reply, one thinks readily of the criticism of the lav/ 
of Moses in the matter of divorce. In reply to the 
question why Moses commanded to give a bill of di- 
vorcement, Jesus says, "Moses for your hardness of 
heart suffered you to put away your wives, but from 
the beginning it has not been so" (Matt. 19:8). Mark 
relates that our Lord appealed from the law of 
Moses to God's original plan for a permanent union 
between husband and wife. It is evident that our 
Lord Jesus recognized imperfection in the law of 
Moses. God allowed Moses to lower the standard 
in the matter of divorce, because of the hardness of 
men's hearts and their inability to rise to a perfect 
standard. Our Lord Jesus restores marriage to God's 
original purpose, and forbids divorce for any cause 
other than impurity of life. 

It is remarkable that Jesus gave such unqualified 
endorsement to the Hebrew Scriptures. We know 
that modern critics of the Old Testament inveigh bit- 
terly against many deeds in Old Testament times 
that are said to have received divine approval. Many 
critics speak of Old Testament ethical standards with 
scant respect. Is it not remarkable that the Teacher of 
teachers, frank and outspoken as He was, did not ex- 
press Himself on such topics as the slaughter of the 
Canaanites, the frequent use of the death penalty in 
the law of Moses, the extensive slaughter of their 
enemies by the Jews in the story of Esther, etc. 

Jesus studied the Old Testament for His own per- 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 39 

sonal use. He was not only born of a woman but also 
born under the law ; and He studied the Scriptures 
in order that He might submit Himself to the will of 
God therein revealed. Hence His intense interest in 
the discussion with the teachers in the Temple on His 
first visit to Jerusalem. When the great temptation 
assailed Him just after His baptism He parried the 
blows of the adversary with words drawn from Deu- 
teronomy. I have been told by a great Jewish lawyer 
that his children regarded the repeated exhortations 
in Deuteronomy as tiresome; but here was a young 
man who hid the words of this great book in His 
heart, that He might not sin against the loving God. 
Three times over He defeated the devil by apt quota- 
tions from the earnest words of the great lawgiver. 
The Messianic element in the Hebrew Scriptures 
engaged the earnest attention of the Christ through- 
out His earthly life. He meditated long and earnestly 
on the pictures of the innocent sufferer in Psalm 22 
and in Isaiah 53. He found in them and other pas- 
sages the prediction of His own sufferings on the 
cross. He was not content with a superficial survey 
of the Messianic passages : they were His meditation 
when alone with the Father in midnight vigil. He 
felt in His soul that these Scriptures must be ful- 
filled in His own experiences, and He courageously 
faced persecution and death. On the cross He voiced 
His sense of loneliness in the opening outcry of Psalm 
22, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" 
A few moments later He surrendered His spirit in 
words drawn from Psalm 31 :5, "Into Thy hands I 
commend My spirit" (Luke 23:46). The Old Testa- 
ment was the Bible of our Lord' Jesus, to which He 
turned for guidance and comfort, and He loved it as 



40 BAPTIST DOCTBINES 

much as did the author of Ps&lm 119. He had no dis- 
position to point out defects in it, though indicating 
when it became necessary that Moses made a conces- 
sion to human weakness in the matter of divorce. 
If the occasion had arisen, He might have spoken 
similarly of the laws concerning slavery. The Old 
Testament did not attain finality in its social legisla- 
tion. Jesus completed and carried to perfection the 
ethical precepts and standards of the Old Testament. 
Much of the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ, 
and the Christian, even though a Jew, is no longer 
required to observe the ceremonial and ritual laws 
of the Pentateuch. The whole dietary system of the 
Pentateuch was set aside as no longer binding when 
Jesus announced the principle that nothing from with- 
out can defile a man, but only what proceeds out of 
an evil heart (Mark 7:14-23). The evangelist's com- 
ment on this striking statement of Jesus indicates its 
revolutionary character. "This He said making all 
foods clean." The teaching of Paul that circumcision 
avails nothing was already implicit in the teaching of 
our Lord. 

The ethical standards of the Old Testament were 
distinctly elevated and thus completed by our Lord 
by the internality of His ethical demands. Jesus for- 
bade the lustful look, anger, envy, pride and the whole 
brood of evil thoughts nesting in the souls of men 
who imagined that they were keeping the command- 
ments of God, because not guilty of overt acts of sin. 

Our Lord made extensive use of the Old Testament 
in His teaching, whether addressing the multitudes or 
teaching His disciples in private. At Nazareth He 
read a passage from Isaiah as a text for His discourse 
on the gracious ministry of the Messiah (Luke 4:16- 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 41 

21 ). He frequently referred to the events of the Old 
Testament history for illustration and argument, and 
He made many quotations from the poetical and 
prophetical books. He was at home in the Bible, and 
delighted to draw on it for illustrations in His public 
teaching. It may be worth while to indicate the wide 
range of allusion to events in the Old Testament nar- 
ratives. He tells the hypocritical scribes and Phari- 
sees that all the righteous blood shed on the earth 
shall come on them, "from the blood of righteous 
Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, 
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" 
(Matt. 23:35). It seems reasonably clear that Jesus 
thought of the blood of Abel as actually shed by his 
wicked brother. He also refers to the story of Noah 
and the flood as illustrating the manner of His own 
coming. "And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, 
so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They 
were eating, were drinking, were marrying, were giv- 
ing in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into 
the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all" 
(Luke 17:26,27; comp. Matt. 24:37-39). There is not 
the slightest hint that He was merely using the 
incident as story material, without meaning to ac- 
cept it as historical. In our Lord's discourse as re- 
ported in Luke another illustration is drawn from the 
miracles of Genesis. "Likewise even as it came to pass 
in the days of Lot ; they ate, they drank, they bought, 
they sold, they planted, they builded ; but in the day 
that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and 
brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: af- 
ter the same manner shall it be in the day that the 
Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30). The story 
of Sodom and Gomorrah is often used by Jesus as a 



42 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

warning to His contemporaries (Matt. 10:15; 11:21-24; 
Luke 10:12-14). He even calls attention to the singu- 
lar fate of Lot's wife (Luke 17:32). He accepts the 
story of the giving of the manna in the wilderness 
(John 6:32,48). He implies approval of the view cur- 
rent in His time that Moses gave the law (John 7:10). 
He expressly says of Moses, "He wrote concerning Me" 
(John 5:46). He makes allusion to the law for the cleans- 
ing of a man suspected of being a leper (Leviticus, chapter 
14; Matt. 8:4). He also reminds His hearers that the 
law in Numbers 28 :9, 10 required of the priests work 
on the Sabbath day (Matt. 12:5). He likened His 
own elevation on the cross to the elevation of the 
brazen serpent by Moses in the wilderness : just as 
faith in God's appointed means of salvation brought 
healing to Israelites bitten by the fiery serpents so 
would faith in the crucified Christ confer the bless- 
ing of eternal life (John 3:14, 15). Jesus calls atten- 
tion to the law in Deuteronomy 19:15 requiring two 
witnesses to establish any matter in court (John 8:17). 
He reminds the critics of His disciples of the eating of 
the shewbread by David when he had need and was 
hungry (Mark 2:25,26). He says that the lilies of 
the field surpass Solomon in all his glory (Matt. 6:20). 
He remembers that the Queen of the South came from 
the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon 
(Luke 11:31). He reminds his neighbors at Naz- 
areth of the stories of Elijah and Elisha, how the 
heavens were shut up for three years and six months, 
when there came a great famine over all the land, 
and how Elisha cleansed Naaman the Syrian of his 
leprosy (Luke 4:24-27). If any story of the super- 
natural were needed to fill to overflowing the cup of 
wrath of the modern rationalistic interpreter of the 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 43 

Bible, surely the narrative of Jonah would suffice. 
Both Matthew and Luke report our Lord as referring 
to the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29- 
32). Matthew quotes Jesus as explaining the sign: 
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the 
belly of the sea-monster ; so shall the Son of Man be 
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." 
Both evangelists report our Lord as saying, "The men 
of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this 
generation, and will condemn it; because they repent- 
ed at the preaching of Jonah ; and behold, One great- 
er than Jonah is here." It is evident that Jesus called 
attention to the physical miracle of the prophet in the 
belly of the great fish and the moral miracle of the 
conversion of the men of wicked Nineveh. He brings 
these wonderful incidents into relation with his own 
approaching death and resurrection and the unbelief 
of his contemporaries. 

Our Lord seems to have accepted the historicity of 
supernatural events without the slightest difficulty. 
Being Himself a miracle, and possessing the power to 
work miracles, He did not call in question the miracles 
of the Old Testament. Through Moses God gave the 
manna, and through the same great prophet God provided 
a remedy for the people who were bitten by fiery ser- 
pents ; through Elijah came the long drought and the 
raising of the widow's son ; through Elisha cleansing 
came to Naaman, the Syrian leper. He who was one 
with the Father, and who had voluntarily become 
flesh and dwelt among men, who was both the Son 
of God and the Son of Man, had no difficulty with 
the wonders of the Old Testament. The unbelief of 
men was a matter that made Him marvel time and 
again. Inasmuch as all things were made by Him, 



44 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

He never became enmeshed in the physical universe 
and the laws governing its action. Through faith 
and prayer and unbroken fellowship with the Father 
He kept all things subject to His holy will. Wherever 
He found faith in men there was no limit to what He 
could do for them. Nothing but unbelief in others 
limited the outgoing of His power to heal and to help. 
Jesus made frequent quotation from the Old Testa- 
ment. Of all the evangelists, Matthew has most fully 
preserved for us the sayings of our Lord Jesus. He 
has also given special attention to preserving the 
quotations made by our Lord from the Old Testa- 
ment. Possibly he made notes during our Lord's min- 
istry; at any rate he has taken great delight in hand- 
ing on to after generations the very words of Jesus. 
He was also greatly interested in the fulfillment of 
Old Testament prophecy in the experiences of Jesus. 
Mark has a keen interest in the deeds of Jesus, and 
reports scarcely any sayings not found in Matthew. 
Luke and John preserved several quotations not 
found in Matthew. It might be helpful to make a 
rough classification of our Lord's quotations from the 
Old Testament. 

1. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus quotes pas- 
sages from the Old Testament as texts for the differ- 
ent sections of His discourse. He first gives an Old 
Testament quotation, sometimes with the rabbinic ad- 
ditions, and then proceeds to give His own higher 
ethical teaching. Thus He quotes the sixth and sev- 
enth commandments as texts from which He preach- 
es on murder and adultery. He completes or fills full 
the Law by insisting that anger or a lustful look 
makes one guilty in the eyes of God (Matt. 5:21-31). 
He then proceeds to quote from Deuteronomy 24:1-3; 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 45 

but at this point He criticises the lower social standard 
of the Mosaic Law. He has no room for divorce in 
His kingdom, unless it be for the one cause of per- 
sonal impurity. Thus our Lord claims to be superior 
to Moses. It is worthy of note however that He is 
merely going back to God's original thought for the 
family when He forbids divorce. Jesus states the 
essence of the teaching in Leviticus 19:12 against false 
swearing, and then proceeds to enjoin His followers 
from the foolish habit of taking oaths. We may in- 
fer from His own example in answering the high priest 
on oath that it is not wrong to take an oath in a court 
of justice. Jesus quotes the "lex talionis," found in 
codes of laws from the days of Hammurabi down to 
the present. This law of retaliation is found in Exodus 
21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21. In op- 
position to this attitude of mind, Jesus preaches the 
doctrine of non-resistance. He tells us that it is bet- 
ter to turn the other cheek than to strike back. At 
this point the teaching of our Lord is so high that 
His followers have scarcely had the courage of faith 
to put in practice what they believe He really meant to 
teach. Our Lord quotes from Leviticus 19:18 the com- 
mandment which He regarded as second only to the 
commandment to love God with the whole heart. He 
puts alongside the command to love our neighbor the 
rabbinic addition to hate our enemy. This gives Him 
the opportunity to make a most exalted demand of 
His followers when He says, "Love your enemies, 
pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be 
sons of your Father who is in heaven ; for He maketh 
His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust." 

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks 



46 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

with a note of authority, putting His teaching in op- 
position to that of the ancients. He is conscious of 
superiority even over Moses the lawgiver. Rabbinic 
additions to the Mosaic Law are brushed aside with 
scant courtesy ; but it is evident that He regards with 
respect the precepts of the Mosaic Law. He express- 
ly disclaims any intention of destroying the Law or 
the Prophets. It is His purpose rather to complete 
and perfect the ancient revelation. 

We may be sure that the language of the opening- 
verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews correctly repre- 
sent the attitude of Jesus toward the Old Testament. 
He knew full well that this ancient revelation was giv- 
en in many parts or fragments and in many styles, and 
that it did not attain finality; but He also knew that 
God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. Be- 
cause of this divine element throughout the Old 
Testament, Jesus always treated the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures with great respect. 

2. Let us turn next to passages quoted by our 
Lord for the purpose of correcting current evils. When 
the Pharisees found fault with the disciples for eating 
without ceremonial cleansing of their hands, Jesus re- 
plied, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment 
of God, for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 
Honor thy father and thy mother, and he that speaks 
evil of father or mother let him surely die. But ye 
say, Whoever says to his father or his mother, It is 
a gift to God', whatever thou mightest be profited 
with from me, shall not honor his father; and ye 
made void the Word of God, for the sake of your tra- 
dition" (Matt. 15:3-6). Jesus gives a summary of 
the commandments found in Exodus 20:12; 21:17; 
Leviticus 20:9. Selfishness usually finds some way to 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 47 

evade the divine requirement. The scribes imagined 
that the duty to provide for parents in old age would 
be subordinate to the claims of religion; hence a son 
could evade the necessity of aiding a needy father by 
merely stating that his property had been dedicated 
to God. This Rabbinic custom of Corban thus gave 
opportunity for evading the divine commandment. 

When the question of divorce was presented to Je- 
sus by the Pharisees, He appealed to the story of cre- 
ation recorded in Genesis 1:27; 2:24. God meant for 
the marriage relation to be permanent : "What there- 
fore God joined together let no man put asunder" 
(Matt. 19:4-6). 

W r hen our Lord chased the money-changers from 
the temple He quoted Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. 
"My house shall be called a house of prayer ; but ye 
are making it a den of robbers" (Matt. 21:13). The 
example of our Lord in using Scripture for correcting 
current evils, and for rebuking evil doers, is worthy 
of imitation by all who preach and teach in His name. 

3. Passages were quoted by our Lord in debate with 
His foes to show the error of their position. When the 
Jews accused Him of blasphemy because He made 
Himself God, Jesus replied, "Is it not written in your 
law, I said, Ye are gods? If He called them gods to 
whom the word of God came, and the Scripture can 
not be broken, do ye say of Him, whom the Father 
sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphem- 
est because I said, I am God's Son?" (John 10:34-36). 
Jesus here quotes from Psalm 82 :6. We do not un- 
derstand Him to mean that He disclaims for Himself 
deity, but that His accusers are without excuse, be- 
cause in their own Scriptures mere men had been de- 
scribed as gods. How much more right, then, had 
God's Son to claim absolute unity with the Father! 



48 BAPTIST DOCTBINES 

When the chief priests and the scribes wished Jesus 
to rebuke the children for crying in the temple "Ho- 
sanna to the Son of David," Jesus replied, "Did ye 
never read, From the mouth of babes and sucklings 
Thou hast perfected praise?" (Matt. 21:16). Jesus 
here gives the substance of Psalm 8:2. 

When the Sadducees came to Jesus with their 
question about the woman who had been married to 
seven brothers in succession, Jesus replied, "Ye err, 
not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven. 
But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have ye 
not read that which was spoken to you by God, say- 
ing, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob ? God is not the God of dead 
men, but of living men" (Matt. 22:29-32). No wonder 
the multitudes were astonished at words like these. 
Never before had they heard a religious teacher who 
could bring out in such striking fashion the very heart 
of a passage of Scripture. If the patriarchs had ceased 
to be at their death, Jehovah would not have pro- 
claimed Himself centuries later as the God of men who 
had long since crumbled to dust. The resurrection and 
immortality were implicit in such a statement on the 
part of the loving God. 

In order to correct the low estimate of the Messiah 
as a mere earthly king on David's throne, Jesus asked 
the Pharisees, "What think ye concerning the Christ? 
Whose son is He? They say to Him, David's. He 
says to them, How then does David in the Spirit call 
Him Lord, saying, 

The Lord said to my Lord, 

Sit on my right hand, 

Until I put thine enemies under thy feet? 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 49 

If then David calls Him Lord, how is He His Son?" 
(Matt. 22:42-45). There has been much debate among 
modern scholars as to the validity of our Lord's argu- 
ment on the basis of the quotation from Psalm 110:1. 
Of course Jesus might have used the argument "ad 
hominem." Arguing on premises accepted by the Phar- 
isees, namely that David was the author of Psalm 110, 
he could have proved that their conception of the Mes- 
siah as merely David's Son needed revision, in view 
of the alleged fact that David called Him Lord. I 
have always risen from a study of our Lord's use of 
Psalm 110 with the conviction that Jesus Himself ac- 
cepted the Davidic authorship of this great prophetic 
Psalm. The arguments against the Davidic author- 
ship have always seemed to me inconclusive. In 
language, style and thought it is in every way worthy 
of Israel's great King. 

4. Passages quoted' for the purpose of guiding in- 
quirers. When asked by the rich young ruler to in- 
dicate which commandments he must keep in order to 
enter into life, Jesus quoted the commandments from 
the fifth to the ninth inclusive and added, "Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. 19:18, 19). 

Jesus did not indicate in His summary of the com- 
mandments the tenth ; but when asked by the young man, 
"What lack I yet?" Jesus told him to sell all his proper- 
ty and give it to the poor. This was perhaps going 
beyond the confines of the commandment against cov- 
eting. But for the command of Jesus, the young man 
might have retained all his property without having 
broken the tenth commandment ; but evidently he was 
in love with his wealth. Jesus had a right to ask him 
to renounce all his wealth and to join the inner circle 
of His disciples, in order that he might invest his life 



50 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

wholly in the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately the 
young man could not stand the test. 

When a lawyer asked Jesus to name the great com- 
mandment in the Law, Jesus replied, "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and 
first commandment. A second is like it, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. 22:37-39). The 
first great commandment is found in Deuteronomy 
6:5, and the second in Leviticus 19:18. With spirit- 
ual intuition, Jesus brought together these two widely- 
separated precepts and made them the foundation of 
all His religious and ethical teaching. 

5. The largest class of passages remains to be con- 
sidered, viz., those foreshadowing the Messiah and His 
times. Speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus identifies 
him with the messenger who was to prepare the way 
before the Messiah (Matt. 11:10). Compare Malachi 3 : 

1. In explaining why He spoke to the multitudes in 
parables, our Lord quoted Isaiah 6:9,10, softening 
somewhat the dramatic imperatives in the Hebrew 
text. Our Lord and the apostles naturally used the 
Septuagint, the common Greek translation of the 
Scriptures current in their day. In His debate with the 
Jews in Jerusalem, Jesus quotes substantially from 
Isaiah 54:13, to prove that only those who had been 
taught of God can really become His disciples (John 
6:45). Denouncing the scribes and Pharisees for 
their hypocritical evasion of God's laws, Jesus quotes 
in a rather free manner, from Isaiah 29:13: 

"This people honor Me with their lips, 
But their heart is far from Me. 
But in vain they worship Me, 
Teaching as doctrines precepts of men." 

(Matt. 15:8,9). 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 51 

In His discussions with the Pharisees during the last 
week of His earthly ministry Jesus quoted Psalm 118: 
22, 23. He evidently meant to teach that He Himself 
was the stone which the builders had rejected. But 
the Lord would yet make Him the head of the corner 
(Matt. 21:42). In His apocalyptic discourse in Mat- 
thew 24, Jesus refers to the abomination of desola- 
tion, spoken of in Daniel 11:31 and 12:11. He indi- 
cates that this abomination of desolation will be seen 
in connection with the disasters preceding the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. In the treachery of Judas, one 
of the twelve, Jesus saw the fulfillment of Psalm 41 :9 : 
"He that eats the loaf with Me lifted up his heel 
against Me" (John 13:18). 

In the unnatural hatred of Jesus by His enemies 
He saw a fulfillment of Psalms 35:19 and 69:4. "They 
hated Me without a cause" (John 15:25). Our Lord 
saw in the scattering of the disciples on the night of 
His arrest a fulfillment of Zechariah 13:7: "I will 
smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will 
be scattered abroad" (Matt. 26:31). As in other quo- 
tations, there are slight verbal variations between 
the language in the Old Testament prophets, and the 
quotation in the New Testament. Perhaps the great- 
est single chapter in the Old Testament describing 
the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should 
follow, is Isaiah 53. According to Luke 22:37, Jesus 
recognized His approaching death on the cross be- 
tween malefactors as a fulfillment of the prophecy, 
"And He was reckoned with the lawless" (Is. 53:12). 
Just before He expired on the cross, Jesus cried out in 
the words of Psalm 22:1, "My God, My God, why 
hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). A few mo- 
ments later He surrendered His soul to God in the 



52 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

words of Psalm 31 :5, "Into Thy hands I commend 
My spirit." 

From the use made of the Old Testament by our 
Lord Jesus we may learn to prize the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures more highly than most modern scholars seem 
inclined to do. One rises from the study of certain 
modern critical commentaries with the feeling that 
the writer has fouled his own nest, and that the 
game was hardly worth the candle. If the critic's 
conclusions are correct, why waste so much time on 
the study of literature of such inferior type? Jesus 
always treated the Old Testament with great respect. 
To Him it was the sword of the Spirit, with which 
He overcame the tempter. The Spirit of revelation in 
the Old Testament prophets foretold His coming and 
many of the experiences through which He would 
pass in redeeming men from sin. The divine element 
in the Hebrew Scriptures appealed to Jesus powerful- 
ly. Whatever of imperfection He may have found in 
the Old Testament, he refrained from any sweeping 
criticism that would discredit it for His followers. 

His own teachings tower above those of Old Testa- 
ment prophets and wise men. A supreme revelation 
of the Father's will was made in the life and teach- 
ing of the Son of God. The Christian must try all 
things by Christ. Whatever is found in the pages of 
the Old Testament that has been made inoperative 
by the example or teaching of our Lord Jesus and 
His apostles, is no longer to be accepted as an author- 
itative guide to one's conduct. If we imitate the 
great men of the Old Testament, it must be in the 
elements of character which received the approval of 
our Lord Jesus. If they move on a lower plane, we 
are not permitted to descend from the example and 



JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 53 

teaching of Jesus, to keep company with any ancient 
worthy, no matter how great he may have been in his 
day and generation. The Bible slopes upward, reach- 
ing its culmination in our Lord Jesus. The apostles 
whose minds were opened by Him that they might 
understand the Scriptures carried forward His method 
of interpretation. Under the influence of the Holy 
Spirit these men have given us, in the Gospels and 
the Epistles, the interpretation of the Messianic ele- 
ment in the Old Testament, substantially as Jesus 
interpreted it to them in the period between His 
resurrection and His ascension. Jesus would no doubt 
approve the judgment of Paul as to the value of the 
Old Testament: "All Scripture is inspired of God, 
and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man 
of God may be complete, completely furnished to eve- 
ry good work (II Tim. 3:16,17). 



CHAPTER III 

THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 

BY 
REV. JACOB HEINRICH, D.D. 



THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF THE 
NEW TESTAMENT 

tfV^LATO lamented that he was adrift on a raft up- 
7 WJ. on a sea with no rudder, no star to guide him ; 
£J2^ yet he, pagan though he was, ventured the 
hope that in good time "the gods would give us a 
staunch boat to sail in." This was but the expression 
of a universal instinct. If there is a God He must 
reveal Himself to His children. Intuition and reason 
unite in demanding that somewhere in the world there 
be a clear and authoritative word of God. 

The absolute uniqueness and divine authority of the 
Bible are not based on the fact of its being one of the 
most ancient sources of history, or a treasure-house 
of literature, or a matchless code of ethics, but on 
the fact that it is the Word of God and a revelation of 
God. Its essence is a record of God drawing near to 
man in the way of grace and encouraging him to hope 
in His mercy through a mediator. The achieve- 
ment of unity in Christ between man and' God is the 
most stupendously significant event in the history of 
the universe, and it is with this the Bible is pre- 
eminently concerned. Man's intellectual and moral 
nature has become alienated from God, enfeebled and 
depraved. It therefore needs an authoritative and 
helpful revelation of moral and religious truth of a 
higher sort than that to which it can attain by the use 
of its unaided powers. Such a revelation is contained 
in the Old and New Testaments, which accordingly 



58 BAPTIST DOCTBINES 

move in the moral and religious realm rather than in 
the scientific, historical or social spheres. 

The facts involved in inspiration are these as sug- 
gested by Garvie : "Nature, history, conscience, rea- 
son are so constituted that they show what God is; 
but man has not received this knowledge in its com- 
pleteness, for he does not know God as He makes 
Himself known. His receptivity of the divine revela- 
tion must be restored. God must, on the one hand, 
so act on him as to make him capable of this purified 
consciousness ; and on the other hand, that there may be 
continuity in his spiritual development. This con- 
sciousness of God must be mediated by a progressive 
purifying of his consciousness of self and the world. 
This action of God on the nature of man we call in- 
spiration." 

In our present attempt to speak mainly regarding 
the authenticity and authority of the New Testa- 
ment no disparagement is intended of the Old Testa- 
ment writings. Both Testaments belong together. 
They form one complete unit and they stand and fall 
together. What Augustine said fifteen centuries ago 
is still true to-day: "The New Testament is in the 
Old contained and the Old Testament is by the New 
explained." The Old Testament is not perfect with- 
out the New and the New Testament is incompre- 
hensible without the Old. We do not recognize dif- 
ferent degrees of inspiration, though there may be 
different degrees of value. Each part in its connection 
with the rest is made completely true, and complete- 
ness has no degrees. Christ, Paul, and the evangel- 
ists agree in regarding the Old Testament as the fruit- 
ful soil in which the New had its roots ; but the fruit 
has a value above that of the chemical elements of 



AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF N. T. 59 

which it is composed. Both the Saviour and His apos- 
tles attest in superabundant measure the divine au- 
thority of the Old Testament by directly adopting the 
views current at the time as to the sacredness of 
the Old Testament Scripture, by repeatedly making 
various portions of it their final appeal in argument, 
by direct assertions that it was the word of God, 
or was spoken by the Holy Spirit, and by refraining 
from attempts to correct or criticize any portion of 
the Scripture then held sacred, though freely crit- 
icizing the traditional views of their times. This estab- 
lishes the divine authority of the Old Testament as 
the foundation for the New. "God having of old time 
spoken unto the fathers in the prophets of diverse 
portions and in diverse manners, hath at the end of 
these days spoken unto us in His Son." Thus Christ 
the incarnate Word of God is also the author and 
medium of the written Word of God. 

Modern criticism has largely centered around the 
genuineness, historicity, credibility, and consequent- 
ly around the authority of the New Testament writ- 
ings. Hence their authenticity and divine author- 
ity need special emphasis and reaffirmation at the 
present time. Without fear of contradiction it can be 
said that although the twenty-seven books consti- 
tuting the New Testament were diverse in origin and 
purpose, and although small sections of the Church, 
or individual writers, have had their doubts as to the 
canonical authority of some of them, yet the Church as 
a whole has never recognized as authoritative Scrip- 
ture any other books than those now found in the New 
Testament. From a very early date in the second cen- 
tury the New Testament Canon has been a fixed 
quantity, even though the formal recognition of the 



CO BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

twenty-seven books as a distinct and definite collec- 
tion cannot be found until the time of the Council of 
Laodicea, 363 A. D. Westcott in his "Canon of the 
New Testament" shows how "the formal declaration 
of the Canon was not by any means an immediate 
and necessary consequence of its practical settle- 
ment." The books of the New Testament natural- 
ly, (or may we not say supernaturally ?) gravitated to- 
gether. The Church, while allowing an ecclesiastical 
use of some of the so-called apocryphal books, such as 
the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, 
and others, never allowed a canonical authority to any 
others than those now in the New Testament. The 
Canon grew by virtue of the inherent divine authority 
of those books that came to constitute it, and it be- 
came fixed rather by the superintending power of its 
divine Inspirer than by any formal edict of the 
church. As Prof. Salmon writes, "It is a remarkable 
fact that we have no early interference of church-au- 
thority in the making of a Canon; no Council discussed 
this subject; no formal decisions were made. The Canon 
seems to have shaped itself." The early councils sim- 
ply recognized the books which bore in themselves 
the marks of their authoritativeness. 

The doubts entertained regarding the so-called anti- 
legomena had their grounds either in the scrupulous 
care which the early Christians exercised under the 
guidance of that Spirit who first inspired the books 
and who enabled them to separate the genuine writ- 
ings from the spurious, or in the prejudices of heretics 
who found their contents contrary to their false views. 

While there is practical unanimity regarding the 
authenticity of the Synoptic Gospels, the authorship 
of John has been hotly contested. In ancient times 



AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF N. T. 61 

the "Alogi," which is a nickname with the double 
meaning of "deniers of the doctrine of the Logos," and 
"men without reason" cast doubt upon its author- 
ship, and in modern days those who regard its testi- 
mony to the deity of Christ as objectionable reject 
it as unauthentic. Dr. Carl Hase in his "Life of Jesus" 
frankly stated that his aim was to represent a purely 
human life, founded upon purely human writings. Har- 
nack in his book on the "Essence of Christianity" 
brushes the testimony of John's Gospel aside as un- 
essential. Mr. Norton, however, in his richly sugges- 
tive work on the "Genuineness of the Gospels" says : 
"About the end of the second century the four Gos- 
pels were reverenced as sacred books by a commun- 
ity diffused over the world, composed of men of dif- 
ferent nations and languages. There were, to say 
the least sixty thousand copies of them in existence; 
they were read in the churches of Christians ; they 
were continually quoted and appealed to as of the 
highest authority; their reputation was as well estab- 
lished among believers from one end of the Christian 
community to the other as it is at the present day 
among Christians in any country." 

Regarding the Acts of the Apostles it is satisfactory 
to note in the modern critical school a disposition large- 
ly to modify if not to reject the theory of Baur, and 
accordingly to discredit some of the chief critical con- 
clusions of this school. Thus Schenkel, one of the 
boldest of critics says : "Having never been able to 
convince myself of the sheer opposition between Pe- 
trinism and Paulinism, it has also never been possible 
for me to get a credible conception of a reconciliation 
effected by means of a literature sailing between the 
contending parties under false colors. In respect to 



62 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

the Acts of the Apostles in particular I have been led 
in part to different results from those represented by 
the modern critical school. I have been forced to the 
conclusion that it is a far more trustworthy source 
of information than is commonly allowed on the part 
of modern criticism." 

Of the thirteen epistles which explicitly claim to 
be Paul's the first four and most important have nev- 
er been questioned by any great representative schol- 
ar in ancient or modern times. The doubts of some 
modern objectors to the smaller and Pastoral Epis- 
tles as Pauline have been dissipated by such scholars as 
Weiss and Godet, who have proved that the condition 
described in them is rather that of a soil prepared for 
Gnosticism than that of an already developed heresy, 
and that the danger here pointed out is of substitut- 
ing intellectualism in religion for piety of heart and 
life. Had the writer been a Christian of the second 
century trying, under the name of Paul, to stigmatize 
the Gnostic systems, he would certainly have used 
stronger expressions to describe their character and 
influence. Besides we find in these epistles precisely 
what was characteristic of apostolic times and not of 
the second century — the plurality and equality of pres- 
byters in each church. There is no trace of the mon- 
archical episcopate elevating itself above the presby- 
terial administration. 

With reference to II Peter, Jude, II and III John 
and the Revelation, the books most frequently held 
to be spurious, Dr. Strong maintains that, "Al- 
though we have no conclusive external evidence earli- 
er than A. D. 160, and in the case of II Peter none 
earlier than A. D. 230 — 250, we may fairly urge in fa- 
vor of their genuineness not only their internal charac- 



AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHOEITY OF N. T. 63 

teristics of literary style and moral value, but also the 
general acceptance of them all since the third century 
as the actual productions of the men whose names 
they bear." 

The genuineness of the Epistle to the Hebrews was 
at first questioned simply because its internal char- 
acteristics were inconsistent with the tradition of a 
Pauline authorship. At the end of the fourth century 
however, Jerome examined the evidence and decided 
in its favor ; Augustine did the same ; the third Coun- 
cil of Carthage formally recognized it (397) ; from that 
time the Latin churches united with the East in re- 
ceiving it, and the doubt was finally and forever re- 
moved. Modern critics are united in assigning He- 
brews a secure place in the New Testament canon. 

It is to be remembered that the inspiration of the 
writers who composed the Bible does not involve those, 
who at a later time, copied and translated the vol- 
ume. Textual criticism is a recognized science. By 
it we ascertain with a remarkable degree of accuracy 
the form of our sacred literature as it came from the 
hands of the inspired writers, and as it was received 
and approved by the primitive churches. The results 
of reverent and legitimate criticism go to prove that 
the text of the New Testament as we now have it, in 
the main, is established beyond all controversy. As 
is to be expected in books made by hand, no two cop- 
ies exactly agree. This does not, however, detract, 
but rather establish their accuracy in all essentials. 
For in a multitude of manuscripts as in a multitude 
of counsellors there is safety. The variations in one 
manuscript offset those in another; and out of the 
whole the original text emerges with a surprisingly 
small range of uncertainty. According to the best au- 



(34 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

thorities seven-eighths of the words of the New Testa- 
ment have passed the ordeal of textual criticism with- 
out question ; and of the remaining one-eighth, only a 
small fraction are subject to reasonable doubt; so that 
fifty-nine sixtieths of the word's of the New Testament, 
as they came from the original authors, are known with 
practical certainty. And even of the one-sixtieth open 
to question the larger part of the doubt pertains to 
changes of order in the words, and other compara- 
tive trivialities. To quote from Westcott and Hort 
"the amount of what can in any sense be called sub- 
stantial variation is but a small fraction of the whole 
residuary variation, and can hardly form more than 
one-thousandth part of the entire text." I am bold to 
say that these variations together will not seriously 
affect a single vital doctrine of the Bible. 

Attempts are being made at the present time either 
to co-ordinate with or substitute for that of the Bible 
other standards of religious authority. Reason, ethico- 
consciousness, value-judgments, experience, and the 
social gospel are some of the more recent criteria by 
which the sacred Scriptures are tried and found want- 
ing. With reference to reason or ethico-consciousness 
it suffices to say that they stand condemned by the 
history and judgment of mankind. If such standards 
were permitted to obtain in the realm of jurisprudence 
there would soon be an end of all law and order in 
society, and as many different standards of authority 
would exist as there are private opinions or individual 
reasoners. The difference between the interpreter who 
acknowledges the Scripture as supreme authority and 
the one who exalts his own ethico-consciousness to 
that place of authority is about the same as between 
the sea-captain who lakes his bearings from the stars 



AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF N. T. 65 

and the one who guides his course by the light upon 
his own masthead. Although as Baptists we stand for 
the right of private opinion and interpretation of the 
Scriptures, we do not exalt reason above or grant it 
a co-ordinate place with the Scriptures as authorita- 
tive in religious matters. For a Baptist minister or 
teacher to hide his unbelief in the Scriptures and in 
its fundamental doctrines behind the smoke-screen 
of the right of private judgment is to become a traitor 
to "the faith which was once for all delivered unto 
the saints." 

One of the most specious forms of current heresy 
is held by those who either consciously or uncon- 
sciously follow Ritschl, who affirmed that truth ex- 
presses itself only in "value judgments." According 
to this theory "it is quite immaterial whether there be 
a God or not, so long as one believes that way ; since 
one's belief, as a value judgment, answers all the prac- 
tical purposes of a God." A like attitude is assumed 
toward the deity of Christ, the atonement, justifica- 
tion by faith, and other vital doctrines. All truth is 
thus reduced to a matter of judgment and only so far 
as it has any value or utility ; the foundations of au- 
thority are removed and practically nothing is left of 
the religion of Christ. Now that the rationalism and 
materialistic philosophy of Germany have become so 
generally discredited as among the main causes of the 
war, one cannot but wonder why they are still followed 
and taught in the schools of our country. They can- 
not but be as destructive and fatal here as there. Prof. 
Harnack the foremost New Testament critic of Prot- 
estantism confessed recently, with tears in his eyes, to 
a Chicago Baptist, that Germany had failed because 
of her lifeless dogmatism and that it needed the vital 



66 BAPTIST DOCTKINES 

and Biblical faith of American Christianity to enable 
it to rise again. 

Not so very long ago a professor in one of our Bap- 
tist theolog'ical seminaries made the statement on the 
same platform on which the writer spoke that "ex- 
ternal standard's no longer suffice as our guides in re- 
ligious matters and can be accepted only in so far 
as they are verified by our own experience." It is a 
common place in these days that religion is a life and 
not a creed. Its reality depends on present experience 
and not on memories of the past. But experience sure- 
ly must be of something. It must have its foundation 
in fact. Otherwise it remains suspended in mid-air 
and there is no guarantee of its uniformity or per- 
manence. The tendency to divorce religious experience 
and thought from fact and history is one that has to be 
combated at every point. Experience is useful as a 
process of verification. It can never be an independent 
source of authority. Christian character apart from 
Christ is an impossibility. By experience men give 
practical effect to the faith that is in them, and are 
able to discover its value for life and conduct. But it 
does not give them the content of their belief. Nor 
must it be forgotten that religious experience itself 
has a history. The experience of the individual is only 
valuable as it is part of the collective experience of the 
race and as it adds to the volume of the testimony 
which that wider experience provides. That the ex- 
perience of Christendom says yea and amen to the 
spiritual claim of Jesus Christ is undoubtedly an im- 
portant fact. But it loses all force and meaning if it 
is once dissociated from the history of the life and 
teaching of Jesus. That men studying this life and 
teaching to-day find in it the same solace and inspira- 



AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF N. T. 67 

tion as were found by the men in the first centuries 
is a striking confirmation of the force of Christ's per- 
sonality and of the universal nature of His appeal. 
Apart from the records of the life and teaching of 
Jesus Christ, no real experience of His power is pos- 
sible. The great need of religion at the present time 
is for more not less historic reality. Nothing is gained 
by telling us that we have the spirit of Jesus even if 
we lose the historical Jesus. To the plain man this 
means that you have reduced his religion to the "base- 
less fabric of a dream." 

Quite recently the writer heard from another Bap- 
tist professor of theology in a Ministers' Conference 
the "social gospel" extolled to the disparagement of 
the evangelistic message. It was said, for instance, 
that a more effective way of saving the drunkard was 
to abolish the saloon than to give him the Gospel. 
Modernism believes in the reformation of society by 
human means rather than in the regeneration of the 
individual. It seems to have forgotten that the Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ alone "is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth." The New 
Testament challenges the socialists as well as the 
rest of us to remember that underneath what is called 
the social problem there is a moral and spiritual prob- 
lem. Men come to Christ maimed, palsied, and help- 
less human beings, and He says to them all, "Son, thy 
sins are forgiven thee." That comes first. And our 
social reformers should learn to take things in their 
proper order. Those who have ever tried to reform 
a sunken human being or some miserable drunkard 
by tinkering with the outside, have grown weary and 
have failed. What is needed is a new man, as well 
as a new environment. The duty of the moment is not 



68 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

to suppress any of the varied manifestations of the 
intellectual ferment of our day, but rather to return 
to the Gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, to 
preach it in all its fullness, to live it out in our own 
experience, and to apply it to the needs of the world. 
Only by such experimental process shall we be able 
to discover that the foundation of God standeth sure. 
The Scripture does not only claim to be divinely 
authoritative but there are several facts which sub- 
stantiate this claim. The gospel is so simple and uni- 
versal that it awakens kindred experiences in men of 
all times and conditions. It has proved to be a re- 
generating, transforming and comforting influence, 
through many centuries, with millions of persons and 
in behalf of individuals of diverse characteristics and 
needs ; which indicates that it possesses a power be- 
yond the human. It is universally acceded that the 
moral system of the New Testament surpasses any 
other system among men. It represents moral and 
religious ideas greatly in advance of the age in which 
it was written and these ideas still lead the world. No 
heathen sacred book shows us a personal Saviour 
from sin, or a way of reconciliation with God and of 
everlasting life. Principles which heathenism ig- 
nored, such as the importance of the individual, the 
law of mutual love, the sacredness of human life, the 
doctrine of internal holiness, the sanctity of the home, 
monogamy, the religious equality of the sexes, identi- 
fication of belief and practice, are all found in the New 
Testament with a perfect harmonization and develop- 
ment of all other truths essential to our temporal and 
eternal welfare ; which implies the presence and pow- 
er of the supernatural. Its predictions have often 
anticipated shorter and longer periods of the future, 



AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY OF N. T. 69 

and' a multiplicity of events, and its utterances have 
never yet failed, nor been once discredited; which 
manifests elements of foreknowledge and omniscience 
which are nothing less than divine. 

The Roman Catholic Church, in order to establish 
its false claims to divine authority, has erred in adding 
to "the words of the prophecy of this book." Prot- 
estantism, in its revolt against these Catholic claims, has 
gone to the other extreme and has "taken away from the 
words of the book of this prophecy." Both procedures are 
equally dangerous and condemnable (Rev. 22:18, 10). 
There has been produced no new principle or doctrine 
acceptable to the general church since the period of 
historic revelation closed. The revelation culminating 
in Christ was complete in all essentials. There will 
and must be a fuller understanding and interpretation 
of many of its statements and doctrines, but the New 
Testament as we now have it is a sufficient guide for 
the individual and the world to God and to salvation. 

This leads me to say a final word in regard to the 
permanence of Scripture authority. Its permanence 
is relative to the fundamental elements in human na- 
ture. As long as human needs, aspirations and long- 
ings remain as they have always been, the Scriptures 
cannot be superseded. Its authors did what Plato 
hoped for. Those who accept the Scripture as divine, 
need not be adrift on a raft upon an open sea with no 
rudder and no star to guide them. With the Psalmist 
they may exclaim "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105). All past 
and present confusion has arisen, not from it, but only 
from man's failure to understand and interpret it 
aright ; which shows that the Book is a light shining 
in a dark place, a voice which has a divinely certain 



70 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

sound, a sacred dictum, an ultimate dogma, the very 
Word of the Living God. Here faith may rest, for 
here is final authority. Age-long tempests rage about 
it, but the Word of our God abides forever. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 

BY 

REV. T. T. SHIELDS, D.D. 



THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 

"When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather 
a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before 
the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just 
person: see ye to it." 

sf/p^UT the incarnate Word was crucified, and His 
? \$% vo * ce was temporarily silenced, notwithstanding 
'rs2;< Pilate's assumed neutrality. And still the cause 
of evangelical truth suffers more from Pilate's wash- 
bowl, than from all the open assaults launched from 
the palace of the high priests of the Higher Criticism. 
The church has more to fear from the hand-washing of 
politic Pilate, than from all the hand-writing of Pro- 
fessor Caiaphas and President Annas. The spirit of 
compromise which, while acknowledging the baseless- 
ness of the charges against God's Word, proposes first, 
to "chastise Him and let Him go ;" and then, failing 
thus to placate the enemy, washes the hand which 
signs the death warrant, is one of the deadliest foes of 
the truth. There are men who once boldly avowed 
their allegiance to the Word of God and the gospel of 
our salvation, who warm themselves by the critic's fire, 
and have no courage to withstand even the taunt of 
the critics' fashion-following maid-servant. In profes- 
sors' chairs, in denominational offices, in pulpits, and 
in pews, there are men who, having examined the Bible 
for themselves "have found no fault" in it, but who 
yet have no word of protest to offer when they see the 
Holy Book given over to the mockers, the nails, and 
the spear of the critics, because it makes itself the 
Word of God. 



74 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

In the hope of stirring to action, and to courageous 
defense of the gospel some who are essaying the im- 
possible role of the innocent neutral in relation to 
the battle for revealed truth, I venture to attempt to 
show how Modernism crucifies the Son of God afresh, 
and puts him to an open shame. And when I employ 
the term "Modernism" I use it merely as a convenient 
name for that dogmatic assumption and assertion of 
critical certitude which denies the plenary divine in- 
spiration and consequent unity of the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments. 

I. 

And I begin with the observation that MODERN- 
ISM FINDS ITS CHIEF OPPONENT IN THE 
LORD JESUS CHRIST. Of those who have boasted 
"the assured results" of modern Biblical Criticism, as 
of those who gloried in the works of the law, it may 
be said, "They stumbled at that stumbling stone." 

There are no defenders of the Old Testament 
Scriptures, like the writers of the New Testament. 
The New Testament attests the historicity of the record 
of Creation, of the Fall of Man, of Cain and Abel, of 
Enoch and Noah, of Abraham and all the patriarchs, 
of Melchisedec, of Moses, and of those who followed 
after. 

The only record we have of Jesus Christ represents 
Him, implicitly or explicitly, as accepting the Mosaic 
authorship of the Pentateuch, and the authenticity of 
the stories of Creation and the Deluge, of Abraham 
and Jonah; it represents Him as fulfilling the Scrip- 
tures by His birth of a virgin; as deliberately reading 
a passage from Isaiah's prophecy at the beginning of 
His public ministry and declaring it to be fulfilled in 



THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 75 

Himself; as fulfilling to the minutest detail prophe- 
cies relating to His death; and as assuming always 
in all His teaching the inspiration and authority of 
the Old Testament Scriptures ; and, while finding His 
whole ministry predicted therein, as being so sure of 
its trustworthiness as to quote it as His final answer 
to the devil himself. 

It would seem, indeed, that every possible point of 
attack upon the Bible has been anticipated by the in- 
spiring and directing Spirit of God, to the extent of 
recording our Lord's approval of practically every 
part of the Old Testament which has been subject to 
the critics' assaults. For it is impossible for the 
critic to escape the necessity of arguing his case at 
last before Christ as the supreme Judge. However 
petty the critics' complaint respecting this word, he 
finds his case carried, whether he will or no, to the 
Supreme Court where Jesus Christ presides ; so that 
it would appear that God has said of this City of 
Truth, as of ancient Zion, "Behold, I lay therein a 
stumbling stone and a rock of offence." Jesus Christ 
is the Rock upon which Modernism splits : "A stone 
of stumbling, and a rock of ofTence, even to them 
which stumble at the Word, being disobedient." 

II. 

MODERNISM CANNOT PREVAIL AGAINST 
AN INFALLIBLE CHRIST. In Canada the oppo- 
nents of prohibition avow their allegiance to temper- 
ance principles. They are opposed to the "tyranny" 
of prohibition because they believe in "personal lib- 
erty." And we have Baptists who object to the 
"tyranny" of those who are resolved to control their 
own institutions, and to see that the money they give 



76 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

is used for the propagation of principles in which they 
believe. And when objection is taken to the use of 
Baptist money and Baptist institutions for the dis- 
semination of views which would destroy the Baptist 
denomination, these theological revolutionaries de- 
mand exemption from all restriction in the sacred 
name of Baptist "liberty." The truth is, standards of 
any kind are irksome to the man who would be a law 
unto himself. And this seems to be emphatically true 
of the destructive critic. He finds that Jesus Christ 
stands in the way of his theories. The great Teacher 
contradicts him at every turn. The critic's only hope 
of success is in proving the fallibility of Christ. It 
seems to me that it is logically impossible to evade 
the issue. Choice must be made between Christ and 
the critics. It is unnecessary for me to deal with the 
attempts which are made to prove the fallibility of 
Christ, while seeking to escape, or, rather, to avoid 
acknowledging, the logical implications of the denial 
of His infallibility. The "assured results" of modern 
criticism are a Babel tower, which, when an infallible 
Christ has pronounced upon it, becomes but a heap 
of confusion. 

The true disciple of Jesus Christ will not demand 
"liberty" to differ from, or contradict his Lord. He 
will glory in being the bond-slave of Christ whom he 
delights to honor in all realms of life. He will crown 
Him Lord of his intellectual life, rejoicing in the use 
of those weapons of warfare which are not carnal, but 
which are "mighty through God to the pulling down 
of strongholds ; casting down imaginations, and every 
high thing which exalteth itself against the knowl- 
edge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought 
to the obedience of Christ." No Christian, and no 



THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 77 

Baptist, has "liberty," to entertain a view of the 
Scriptures which is contrary to Christ. 

III. 

THE INFALLIBILITY OF CHRIST, IN THE 
NATURE OF THINGS, IS INVOLVED IN HIS 
DEITY; you cannot disprove the one without the 
other. I shall not argue that which is self-evident. 
It is enough to say that the only record we have of 
Him never represents Him as expressing a mere opin- 
ion, or as uttering a doubtful word. His questions 
were always the questions of a teacher, put, not to 
elicit, but to impart information. "He taught them as 
one having authority, and not as the scribes." He 
said, "We speak that we do know, and testify that 
we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness. If I 
have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, 
how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" 
As He claimed to have power in heaven and on earth, 
so He claimed a full knowledge both of earthly and 
heavenly things. To surrender to Modernism in- 
volves not only the denial, but the betrayal, of the 
impeccable Man, the infallible Teacher, and the in- 
carnate God. 

Respecting the resurrection, Paul said, "If Christ 
be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your 
faith also is vain. Yea, and we are found false wit- 
nesses of God; because we have testified of God that 
He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so 
be that the dead rise not." It is still more emphatical- 
ly true, that if Christ Himself be found a false witness 
of God, our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins. 



78 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

IV. 

Let us now consider THE RELATION OF MOD- 
ERNISM TO THE DEATH OF CHRIST. What 
construction does "modern scholarship" put upon the 
death of Christ? That must depend upon the view 
it takes of His person. Does it content itself with 
taking a sandal from His feet, or with cutting a piece 
from the skirt of His robe, or with roughening His 
hand, or with plucking but one laurel leaf from His 
brow? Has it discerned an astigmatism in His spirit- 
ual vision, a defect in His intelligence, or a lisping 
uncertainty in His speech? Is it engaged in the re- 
moval of a rank growth of tradition which has grown 
up about the Castle of Truth, so as to afford the eye 
of faith an unobstructed view of its perfection? Does 
it concern itself with cleaning the glasses, or even 
with putting new lenses in the lighthouse of Revela- 
tion that it may more clearly direct the mariner on 
the pathless sea of life? 

Let us see. 

The charge against Jesus was that, "He made 
Himself the Son of God." It was for this He was 
crucified. It may be said that He died by His own 
testimony ; for when the council had heard Him, they 
said, "What need we any farther witnesses? for we 
ourselves have heard of His own mouth." And to 
precisely the same conclusion does the reasoning of 
Modernism lead us to-day. Only by a logic that is 
as. lame as Mephibosheth, and which cannot limp be- 
yond the boundaries of Lodebar, can the higher crit- 
ical view of the Scriptures escape the necessity of de- 
nying the deity of Christ. And when driven along 
that road, what find we in the cross? 

In the first place, it loses its redeeming power. 



THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 79 

If the Sufferer of Golgotha was not God, "manifest 
in the flesh," the cross can have no atoning value. 
If God was not in Christ, He cannot through Him 
have reconciled the world unto Himself. If in Christ 
we have a mistaken dreamer who, by such knowl- 
edge as He then possessed, being ignorant of "the as- 
sured results" of modern criticism, could not have 
qualified for a professorship in divinity in some of 
our advanced theological seminaries, He must have 
been without capacity to bear our sins in His own body 
on the tree. Unless in nature and essence He was 
one with God, unless "His Godhead gave Him an in- 
finite capacity, and infused a boundless degree of com- 
pensation into all the pangs He bore," there can have 
been no vicariousness in His suffering, and no ex- 
piatory value in His death : that being true, there is no 

"fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 
Where sinners, plunged beneath that flood, 
Lose all their guilty stains." 

The modernist is as blind to the spiritual signifi- 
cance of the death of Christ as was the neutral Pilate 
who signed the death warrant, or the soldiers who 
nailed Him to the tree. Indeed, I venture to believe 
it is no exaggeration to say, that the logic of the 
critical view of the Person of Jesus puts into the lips 
of Modernism the sentiments, if not the very words, 
of the Pharisees of ancient time as they contemplated 
the death of Christ: "Sir, we remember that that de- 
ceiver said while He was yet alive, After three days 
I will rise again: command therefore that the sep- 
ulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His dis- 
ciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say 
unto the people, He is risen from the dead. So the last 
error shall be worse than the first." Modernism has 



80 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

done its best to follow Pilate's suggestion; the logic 
of its reasoning would make the sepulcher sure, seal- 
ing the stone, and setting a watch. 

But to return to the cross. To the "advanced" 
critic the loss of the "Fountain filled with Blood" is 
no loss at all ; for his reasoning would lead us serious- 
ly to question whether we have any "guilty stains" 
to lose. For this strange and "strong delusion" which 
seems to have fallen upon so large a part of the pro- 
fessed Church of Christ would not only rob us of a 
Redeemer, but would rob us also of any trustworthy 
revelation from God. 

If Christ be fallible, and the Scriptures untrust- 
worthy, who shall tell us of our state? or who shall 
show us the path of life? The doctrines of the fall 
of man ; of sin and its punishment ; of the new birth ; 
of justification by faith; of the ministry of the Holy 
Spirit ; of the resurrection of the dead ; of the second 
advent, of judgment to come; all these doctrines fail, 
and the whole historic evangelical position crumbles, 
with the surrender of the infallibility and eternal Son- 
ship of Jesus Christ. 

I met one not long since, whom I knew in years 
gone by as a worshiper of Jesus the incarnate God. 
But he had turned at the forked roads, and when I 
met him recently he had traveled far along the road 
of rationalism ; and apparently, his logic gave him a 
through ticket to the end of the way. When I op- 
posed his rationalism with the word of divine Rev- 
elation, he smiled at my simplicity. I said, "I sup- 
pose you don't believe in revelation?" He replied, 
"If you mean by that, any sort of extramundane rev- 
elation, no." 

And it appears to me impossible to stop short of 



THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 81 

that conclusion if once the fallibility of Christ be 
postulated. Is it therefore necessary to contend for 
the faith once for all delivered to the saints? Can the 
ship we know as the Church weather the storm with 
this Jonah of Modernism on board? Can we lighten 
the ship or calm the sea by casting our doctrinal wares 
into the sea? Or must we take the modernist who 
will neither preach the preaching which God bids 
him Himself, nor let any one else do it, and heave him 
overboard ? 

Once in the ancient time Ben-hadad the King of 
Syria gathered all his host together, and went up and 
besieged Samaria. And he sent messengers to Ahab 
king of Israel saying, "Thus saith Ben-hadad, thy sil- 
ver and thy gold is mine ; thy wives also and thy chil- 
dren, even the goodliest are mine. And the king of 
Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according 
to thy saying I am thine, and all that I have. And 
messengers came again and said, Thus speaketh Ben- 
hadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, say- 
ing, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, 
and thy wives and thy children; yet I will send my 
servants unto thee to-morrow about this time, and 
they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy 
servants ; and it shall be that whosoever is pleasant 
in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand and 
take it away. 

Then the King of Israel called all the elders of the 
land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this 
man seeketh mischief : for he sent unto me for my 
wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for 
my gold, and I denied him not. 

"And all the elders and all the people said unto 
him, Hearken not unto him, nor consent." 



82 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

And this Ben-hadad of Modernism is equally in- 
satiable. Trembling Israelites have surrendered the 
early chapters of Genesis, the Mosaic authorship of 
the Pentateuch, the historicity of Jonah, and many 
of "the goodliest" of the treasures of Holy Writ ; but 
this Ben-hadad will not be appeased. He will send 
his servants to search the whole house of revelation, 
and whatsoever is desirable in our eyes, "they shall put 
it in their hands, and take it away." What will all 
the elders and all the people say to this demand? 
What limits shall be put to the predatory "liberty" 
which this Modernism claims for itself? The wise 
man said, "There are three things that are never sat- 
isfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough ; the grave, 
and the barren womb ; the earth that is not rilled with 
water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough." To- 
day there is a fifth. The insatiable mania of "modern 
scholarship" would devour the whole Bible. 

I believe that if once the issue can be fairly faced, 
and the people can be made to see the implications 
of this deadly movement, the great multitude who 
have a personal experience of the saving grace of 
God, and of the sovereign Saviourhood of Jesus Christ, 
will thunderously reply, "Hearken not unto him nor 
consent." 

V. 

And now let me speak this heartening word in con- 
clusion. The cross was no accident. Dark as was the 
day, fearful as was the agony, wicked as were the 
hands which nailed to a cross of wood the Son of 
God, His absolute sovereignty never shone more clear- 
ly than at the place called Golgotha. By wicked hands 
they crucified and slew the One who was delivered 
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 



THE CROSS AND THE CRITICS 83 

God. By their denial of His every claim, they only 
proved the truth of that which they denied: "Because 
they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets 
which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled 
them in condemning Him. And though they found no 
cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that 
He should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all 
that was written of Him, they took Him down from 
the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre. But God raised 
Him from the dead." 

And the critics are fulfilling the Scriptures in con- 
demning them ; for "the Spirit speaketh expressly, 
that in the latter times some shall depart from the 
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of 
devils." To the believer in the Scriptures the "peril- 
ous times" when so many are "ever learning, and 
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," 
are no surprise. For they who are "mindful of the 
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, 
and of the commandments of the apostles of the 
Lord and Saviour, know this first, that there shall 
come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own 
lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His com- 
ing? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things con- 
tinue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the 
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth 
standing out of the water and in the water: whereby 
the world that then was, being overflowed with water, 
perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are 
now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved 
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of 
ungodly men." 

My brethren, let us take courage ! As there was 



84 BAPTIST DOCTKINES 

no sepulcher which could hold the Incarnate Word, 
so there are no means by which this Bible can be de- 
stroyed. The original is kept where the alleged "as- 
sured results" of the critics have no weight: forever 
God's word is settled in heaven ! And when heaven 
shall be opened, and the Rider of the White Horse 
shall come down the skies, He shall be clothed in a 
vesture dipped in blood : and His name is called the 
Word of God. And He hath on His vesture and on 
His thigh a name written, "King of Kings, and Lord 
of Lords/' 

■ 



CHAPTER V 

"PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION AND ITS 
MEANING TO THE MINISTRY" 

BY 
REV. D. F. RITTENHOUSE, D.D. 




"PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION AND ITS 
MEANING TO THE MINISTRY" 

Y Fellow-laborers and Brethren: I am very 
happy to present to this audience the subject 
Ci announced. We can't keep our hands off this 
matter of the resurrection because death won't keep 
his hands off of us. Nobody has ever doubted that 
Christ died and that He was actually placed in a 
tomb. Mark 15:46,47 plainly tells us that Joseph 
of Arimathsea "Laid Him in a sepulchre which was 
hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door 
of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary 
the mother of Joses beheld where He was laid." This 
much is generally accepted as fact. Everybody ac- 
cepts the fact that people die. Every person expects 
sooner or later to breathe his last. He hopes this 
dreaded' experience will be long delayed but he knows 
his last day will some day be at hand. We are told 
that upward of thirty millions of people fall victims of 
death annually. Upon slight reflection the earth 
seems to be one vast human burying ground. As the 
poet Bryant puts it "All that tread the earth are but 
a handful to the tribes that slumber in its bosom. 
The hills rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, the veils 
stretching in pensive quietness between, the venerable 
woods, rivers that move in majesty, and the com- 
plaining brooks that make the meadows green, and 
poured round all old ocean's grey and melancholy 
waste are but the solemn decorations of the great 
tomb of man." 



88 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

You know the dreadful pangs of seeing death snatch 
from your very arms those you love. You know the 
pain and horror of seeing your loved one grow pale 
and rigid and repulsive right before your own eyes. 
Alas! you have not only witnessed the ugly sight of 
others dying but the process of disintegration is work- 
ing this very minute in your own body. It is only 
by wise selection of bread and meat and potatoes 
coupled with rest and re-creation that you are kept on 
your feet. Skilled doctors stand ready to make re- 
pairs as they are needed. Yet, despite all sustaining 
agencies, loathsome corruption is eating its way into 
the life and beauty of these very human faces to 
whom I speak these words. The hollow darkness of 
the cold grave is yearning after these warm loving 
hearts right in this auditorium. Every flying hour is 
hastening you toward a day of weakness, sickness, de- 
cay and one last awful gasp for breath. You are bound 
for the cemetery. Your very heart is but a muffled 
drum beating your funeral march to the grave. O 
hideous, horrible, heart-breaking, cruel fact of death ! 
O where may comfort and cheer and hope be found ! 
O where can we get some light to break in on our 
darkness ! I will tell you. The Holy Scripture has 
an abundance and to spare. The Bible promises us 
more than does any other book. It makes no faint 
guess. It is no bit of wild speculation about this 
mysterious doctrine. It is solid proof. "According to 
the Scripture" ought to be proof enough. If you are 
not prepared to accept the teaching of the authorita- 
tive revelation of God to man on this great subject 
you must grope on hopelessly toward the deep, black, 
cold, bitter night of the grave. 

At this point I am reminded of a story of a man 



PEOOF OF THE RESURRECTION 89 

who renounced his faith and refused to believe in the 
hereafter. To him there was no heaven and no hell. 
Finally the man died. His family took him to the 
church for the funeral services. While the friends 
were marching by the casket viewing the remains, one 
of the old neighbors broke out in laughter. "Be quiet 
man," said the undertaker, "don't you know folks 
don't laugh at funerals?" He quieted for a moment 
and broke out laughing again. Again he was reproved 
for his rudeness. But the neighbor said he couldn't 
help but laugh. "Why can't you help laughing?" 
"Well" said he "it is this way. John renounced 
his religion. Said he did not believe in heaven or hell, 
and now here he is ; all dressed up and no place to 
go." 

Now let us examine the foundations on which we 
stand. Let us try to imagine ourselves just as ig- 
norant of the doctrine of the resurrection as were the 
incredulous people surrounding Jesus who were "slow 
of heart to believe." Let us gather up the available 
evidence in support of the claim, 

First, That Jesus rose from the dead. 

Second, That we shall rise. 

Third, Observe how a sound belief in the doctrine 
of the resurrection is fundamental to an efficient min- 
istry. 

I. DID JESUS RISE? 

Let me assure you I shall not bother you with 
questions touching the precise mode of the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus. I am not concerned about whether 
in the resurrection Jesus recovered every atom and 
particle of His flesh, hair, teeth, nails and other or- 
gans of His body. I am not interested in learning 



90 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

or speculating upon how Jesus ate and drank in His 
risen body nor where He got the clothes He wore after 
He got out of the grave. Nor shall I trouble you with 
a presentation of the denials of skeptics and infidels 
on this question. Renan, Strauss, Bauer, Paulus, 
Keim and others have denied the plain truth of the 
resurrection by such mysterious arguments that it 
requires greater faith to accept their miraculous proofs 
of infidelity than is required to accept the original 
Scriptural proof of this great super-natural event. 
You can find the warped and twisted theories of the 
infidels recited in theological books. I want to get a 
foundation under the modern thoughtful man who is 
well aware of the uniformity of nature in concluding 
life with death. I want to get a substantial footing 
under the man who is well versed in the teachings of 
other religions about trances and visions and appari- 
tions. I covet the power to convince his head and 
heart that the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
is unique and stands impregnable; that it can't be dis- 
lodged by scientific assault, nor can it be relegated 
to the limbo of myth and legend. Yes, I want to get 
beneath every one of you, my hearers, the foundation 
of a well-reasoned faith in this wonderful doctrine. 

Now, did my Lord rise from the dead? The same 
identical authority for the fact of His death and burial 
tells us that when the women returned to the same 
place where they had seen Jesus laid, they found 
the stone rolled away from the door of the sepulcher. 
They were filled with excitement. A young man sit- 
ting by clothed in white sought to calm their fears : 
"Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified : He 
is risen: He is not here: Behold the place where they 
laid Him." The Master had given His disciples an 



PEOOF OF THE EESUEKECTION 91 

inkling of the fact that He would rise. "From that 
time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, 
how that He must go to Jerusalem * * and be killed 
and rise again the third day." But this thought was 
so unreal that it could not be easily grasped. Indeed 
some of the disciples could hardly believe their own 
eyes on this point. Such stubborn unbelievers as 
Thomas and the shrewd Jewish tax-gatherer Mat- 
thew both had to be shown on this matter, but they 
finally accepted the proof that was offered. 

The four Gospels give a natural, straightforward, 
simple account in perfect accord and leave no room 
for doubt that all the writers believed Jesus rose 
from the dead just as truly and actually as He made 
water into wine or walked on the sea of Galilee or 
ate when He was hungry or rested when He was weary 
or prayed when in need of heavenly guidance. Peter's 
preaching was an astounding proclamation of the 
resurrection. Paul by word and pen preached the 
great doctrine of the resurrection as the foundation 
beneath the whole structure of Christian doctrine. It 
was the basic and fundamental truth and hope of 
the world. This Master-theologian offers more abun- 
dant proof and more conclusive proof of the resurrec- 
tion than any New Testament writer. Let us look for 
it. 

Right at the outset he boldly proclaims, "I deliv- 
ered unto you that which I also received, how that 
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 
and that He was buried and that He rose again the 
third day." To a people who had never dreamed such 
things were possible this declaration was rash in the 
extreme. Socrates, the wisest and most acceptable 
religious teacher of his time had never ventured to 



92 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

suggest the possibility of anybody dead coming back 
to life. 

lean imagine Paul's hearers pressing him for more 
details. With prompt and definite courage he comes 
forth with further proof that one person who has 
actually gone into the darkness of the grave had come 
to life. "According to the Scriptures:" Yes. "He 
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve : after that, he 
was seen of about five hundred brethren at once, of 
whom the greater part remain unto this day, but 
some have fallen asleep. After that, He was seen 
of James. Then of all the apostles. And last of all He 
was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." Do 
you catch the cumulative power of this proof? Here are 
six separate appearances. If this is insufficient proof 
of the resurrection of Jesus, sufficient evidence could 
hardly be addressed to human reason. 

Let us suppose that Elihu Root, Secretary of State 
under Theodore Roosevelt should come into this audi- 
torium with the startling announcement that Roosevelt 
has risen from the dead. Can you imagine what your 
first impression would be? I can. You would not be 
half so much impressed with the fact that Roosevelt 
was actually alive as you would be with the fact that 
Secretary Root was suffering from a strange and pe- 
culiar seizure of mental irregularity. We would have 
small concern about Roosevelt's post-resurrection 
career but we would be tremendously concerned 
about getting Mr. Root out of this auditorium and 
taken to a sanitarium for skilful treatment. But wait 
a minute. Here stand all the members of Roosevelt's 
Cabinet and they enthusiastically affirm that Mr. Root 
is of a sound mind and that Theodore Roosevelt has 
actually risen from the dead. But these are not all. 



PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION 93 

Here come the heads of the departments at Washing- 
ton and they say also Roosevelt has risen from the 
dead. But these are not all. Just outside the door is 
a crowd of nearly five hundred who shout forth : "We 
are witnesses to the fact that Roosevelt has risen 
from the dead: WE HAVE SEEN HIM OUR- 
SELVES." Just as the cheering dies out and order 
is restored there comes to this platform a gentleman 
of broad culture, serious experiences and with an air 
of cautious seriousness says : "Yes, and last of all he 
was seen of me also." My brethren, can any reason- 
able, candid person deny the weight of such convinc- 
ing evidence? Isn't this proof sufficient? Can we not 
all join in one grand hallelujah chorus in which we 
shout the one great mysterious, abiding, significant 
fact of the Christian faith: "HE AROSE." He was, 
He is and is to be for evermore in the realm of life. 
He is the risen, reigning, triumphant Christ. 

Another revolutionizing fact looks us straight in 
the face : The change of the worship-day. The early 
Church was founded among a people who had from 
the beginning of the ages worshiped on the seventh 
day of the week. About the most difficult thing to 
change is a well-established Holy Day. It is therefore 
a matter of singular significance that the early Chris- 
tians actually changed the worship day from the last 
day of the week to the first day of the week. Also the 
change was made without any sort of legislative au- 
thority but by general consent. To effect such a change 
must have been the result of some revolutionary oc- 
currence. Can you imagine an event so striking in 
its reaction upon the world that our worship-day would 
be changed from Sunday to some other day of the 
week? I doubt whether so great an event as the 



94 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

actual landing of Jesus on this planet could effect such 
a change. But the event that did effect such a change 
was nothing other than the fact that Jesus Christ 
rose from the dead on the first day of the week. 

II. SHALL WE RISE FROM THE DEAD? 

Now that we are assured of the Resurrection of 
Jesus we have still to repeat another question of 
Paul's when he said "HOW SAY SOME OF YOU 
THERE IS NO RESURRECTION OF THE 
DEAD?" That is still the question of the modern 
skeptic, but Paul is ready with reason. He really says, 
"How dare you count as incredible that that which has 
once taken place may take place again. One dead form 
has come to life and walked and talked with men and 
certainly it is possible that others may also come from 
the slumber of death. However mysterious or ap- 
parently incomprehensible it may seem, it is not in- 
credible." It was a bold undertaking to prove to 
people who had been saying farewell to the dying and 
mourning for the dead', that the dead should come 
forth to post-mortem life. But Paul offers this sweet 
and blessed hope to a dying race. The light of the 
resurrection Paul hangs over every grave that holds a 
human form. The longing of the human heart will 
some day be satisfied on this point of the resurrec- 
tion. Yea, the world believes that Joseph's tomb is 
empty, that Mary's son has risen, that there has been 
at least one grave robbed of its victory, thus render- 
ing the fact of the resurrection seriously credible. But 
Paul rushes boldly beyond mere credibility and with- 
out controversy declares that this new living person, 
this Lord of heaven and earth has come into the 
world to destroy all of man's enemies and to lead man 



PROOF OF THE INSURRECTION 95 

forth into a new and higher form of being in which 
death shall be swallowed up in victory. That life shall 
be too much for death, "For since by man came death, 
by man also came the resurrection from the dead. 
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be 
made alive. For He must reign till He has put all 
enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall 
be abolished is death. And when all things have 
been subjected unto Him then shall the Son of Man 
also be subjected unto Him that did put all things 
under Him, that God may be all in all." Paul clear- 
ly shows that sin has deranged this beautiful human 
creature and the Son of God has undertaken its restora- 
tion. He will get all of man's enemies under His 
feet some day and of all things that have made man 
suffer and blasted his hopes and spoiled his happi- 
ness, death stands at the head of the list. Death has 
been man's most dreaded enemy. Death an enemy? 
Yes, behold fair forms, writhing in pain, light and 
beauty fading from their face, gasping for one final 
breath and then cold and unresponsive as marble. 
Oh how people everywhere dread death! We have 
built great schools of science ; we have studied every 
nerve and muscle and bone and cell of the human 
anatomy; men have analyzed every herb of the field, 
the bark and leaves of the trees for chemical ingredi- 
ents ; organized' bureaus of meat, cereal, fruit, milk 
and water inspections ; they have studied the problems 
of sanitation and housing, mill and mine and factory 
conditions, yea, they have invented electrical machin- 
ery, concocted chemical combinations, discovered new 
forms of chiropractic manipulations, all for the pur- 
pose of keeping death a little farther from our precious 
bodies. Death our dreaded enemy that takes one half 



96 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

of the human race into its cold repulsive embrace be- 
fore it reaches the short age of only twenty-two years. 
Oh death ! robbing our homes, crushing our hearts, 
the archenemy of God the ever living, and of man the 
ever dying one. How can death be defeated? Can it 
be defeated at all? Oh fellow-sufferer, Paul has a 
wonderfully heartening word for us on this point. Paul 
says "This enemy shall Christ destroy. " No not 
at one strong blast of His Omnipotence shall this en- 
emy be destroyed. Slavery, ignorance, despotism, su- 
perstition, heathenism are great and dreaded enemies, 
but don't you see they are being gradually conquered? 
One by one, little by little each is being disarmed, dis- 
abled, weakened, yea, on the road to sure defeat and 
death. But DEATH still holds his ground; still swal- 
lows down its millions of victims every year. Yes, 
but not forever. Under the light and power of this 
great strong Son of God the battle against death thun- 
ders on and the enemy is on the run. He is already 
sorely wounded, he will die hard but die he surely 
must. Redeeming mercy is already shouting victory. 
The hand that bears the nail prints has already torn 
the sting out of death. Death has so long been a 
victor. I see him sitting by Joseph's tomb as they 
bear the body of my Lord toward the grave and death 
seems to sneeringly say, "I thought He claimed to 
be Eternal Life and would never fall victim of my 
power, but you see I have Him now. I am conquer- 
or. I still hold sway. Put Him deep in the grave 
and be gone." Heart-broken and hopeless His disci- 
ples turn away. They have buried the world's Sa- 
viour out of sight. He has gone the way of all mor- 
tals. But three days and three nights brings the 
battle to an end. Jesus has yielded to the power of 



PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION 97 

death just long enough to give everybody time to 
know He was dead and death had Him in its ugly 
grip. Then with the omnipotent power of an endless 
life He broke death's grip, a heavenly messenger 
rolls the stone away and Jesus Christ walks forth the 
first-fruits of them that slept. Then He seems to turn 
for one last look at death and laughs "Oh death where 
is thy sting? Oh grave where is thy victory?" and to His 
faint-hearted, hopeless followers I seem to hear Him 
shout the promise of theirs and our deliverance when 
He said, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me 
though he were dead, yet shall he live." "Because I 
live ye shall live also." That "Whosoever" includes 
you and me, my brethren. As of old "Come see the 
place where the Lord lay." Verily it is an empty 
place and by the emptiness of that new tomb, my 
tomb, your tomb shall also be empty. WE SHALL 
LIVE AGAIN. 

As of old, that perversity of human nature, we all 
understand insists upon asking "how" we shall come 
forth. Death destroys the very atoms of our bodies. 

"Paul, what has divine inspiration whispered into 
your heart and head on this matter?" He replies 
"Open your eyes. The resurrection finds a most il- 
luminating analogy right in nature around you. 
Haven't you observed that death is the pre-requisite 
of life, and not the end of life?" "That which thou 
sowest is not quickened except it die." Any seed you 
sow in the soil is at once set upon by the powers of 
disintegration. The process of death begins at once 
but right out of this decaying, dying dead seed comes 
forth this beautiful green life of waving wheat or 
corn. Right out of the dust and ashes of that dis- 



98 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

solved grain of wheat the green stocks grow tall 
and fruitful. Right out of the dark nothingness of the 
grave of apparent defeat comes the shout of victory. 
"Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone/' "Death is swallowed up of 
life." The death of the seed is the pre-requisite of 
this new, beautiful, rich life of living grain. "Sown 
in corruption, raised in incorruption." Out of its 
death comes the body of a new and glorious life by 
the power of the Son of God. We are all a part of 
God's created universe. What God is doing daily 
through the centuries right out in the grain fields, He 
is perfectly competent to do, yea has promised He will 
certainly do in our own very bodies. Right out of the 
dissolving particles of this corruptible body our God 
will bring forth our new body incorruptible and glo- 
rious. Blessed be God ! Our own resurrection though 
full of glorious mystery is a rational and reasonable 
hope. 

But Paul has more light for us. He points for us 
that this new life that comes out of the dissolution of 
the old is quite different. "There is a natural and 
there is a spiritual." "These are different." "That 
which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body which 
shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat or 
some other grain." Out in the field the farmer does 
not put little corn plants into the ground but puts 
into the ground bare, hard dry corn kernels. In the 
flower garden you do not plant little carnations to 
grow big. A flower is exquisite in form, matchless 
in color, sweet of odor but the seed is a dry, hard, 
dead form. I would not go far to see a bag of car- 
nation seed — the natural body — but I once rode eighty 
miles to see a hundred acres of carnations in full 



PEOOF OF THE EESUEEECTION 99 

bloom. On Sunday morning- the decorating commit- 
tee does not place a cup of flower seeds on the pul- 
pit; the natural inferior corruptible seeds would in- 
terest no one. But carry them to the garden. Bury 
them in the soil. Let dissolution and death get at 
them and in a little while they shall be raised incor- 
ruptible and glorious bodies to delight our nostrils and 
eyes, and inspire our hearts. "Sown in weakness, 
raised in power." "Sown a natural body, raised a 
spiritual body." In like manner, we are sown in cor- 
ruption, raised in incorruption, sown in weakness, 
raised in power. Sown an inferior body, raised a glo- 
rious body, sown a natural body, raised a spiritual 
body. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of 
heaven — but we shall be changed, corruption must put 
on immortality." So let our bodies die in the likeness 
of His death that we might come forth with Him in 
the likeness of His resurrection and travel onward and 
upward by the power of a glorious and endless life. 

Paul also makes clear another very comforting and 
beautiful fact. We retain our individuality. "Thou 
sowest a bare grain — but God giveth it a body as 
pleaseth Him and TO EVERY SEED ITS OWN 
BODY." A wheat seed will grow a short slender 
stock and crown it with fruit that tastes like flour. 
A corn kernel will grow a tall, strong stalk with 
fruit only half way to the top and tastes like meal. 
But no power beneath the stars can change the stalk 
of wheat into a stalk of corn. Each will be marked by its 
own peculiar form, size, color and flavor. Its own indi- 
viduality will be retained. Human identity is not so much 
a matter of difference in atomic material. It is the distinct 
principle of life that dwells inside your material com- 
bination of atoms that marks your identity. Our bod- 



100 BAPTIST DOCTEINES ' 

ies change with the passing years, but our identity 
remains the same. Here is a man burning with fever, 
wasted by long illness that leaves only a skeleton but 
with the curing of the disease the man once a skele- 
ton rises to health and strength. The new look on his 
face is very different from the thin, pale, furrowed, 
look of illness. The one hundred and eighty pounds of 
health is very different from the one hundred pound 
skeleton, yet the big strong man is exactly the same 
identical person that once lay on the bed of pain. So 
out of the corruption that lay in the tomb shall finally 
come forth the same identical person, revived, in- 
corruptible and glorious. 

Now we have seen clearly that Jesus Christ rose. 
That His resurrection is proof and promise of our res- 
urrection. That confident belief in His resurrection is 
fundamental to our resurrection, that we rise to new- 
ness of life, but retain our personality. 

III. NOW LET ME SHOW HOW THIS GREAT 
DOCTRINE POURS A NEW AND GLORIOUS 
POWER INTO THE MINISTRY. 

Jesus repeatedly told His disciples He must go to 
Jerusalem, be betrayed unto the chief priests and un- 
to the scribes and they would condemn Him to death ; 
they would deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, to 
scourge and to crucify : and on the third day He should 
rise again. The disciples could not consent to such 
a suggestion of His death. "Be it far from Thee 
Lord," one of them said. It was a decided shock to 
their spiritual outlook. It seemed to darken their vi- 
sion. Selfish, worldly, conceited', covetous Judas 
turned traitor. Peter got so far wrong that he was 
not above swearing, lying and denying. * Eight of the 



PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION 101 

disciples went to the edge of the garden to keep 
watch while Jesus drank the bitter cup of sorrow 
but instead of watching they went to sleep. Peter, 
James, and John were taken into the inner circle of 
privilege and urged to watch and pray as a matter 
of support to Jesus while He wrestled with His su- 
preme duty. But when He went to His death not 
one single disciple could be found. The few days 
and nights that followed found the dead Christ and 
His disciples worlds apart. But note the effect of 
their post-resurrection experiences. Every one of those 
disciples was convinced that Jesus Christ had risen 
from the dead. They were so thoroughly aroused in 
moral and spiritual passion because they had seen 
Him themselves that rather than give up their faith 
in the resurrected Saviour they laid down their very 
lives to constantly proclaim Him to the world. How 
marvelous was their spiritual transformation ! Look 
at Peter. Swearing, lying, denying his Lord but, 
just a few days later this very same man is leading 
the apostolic band with a confidence that nothing on 
earth could shake. In Acts the 1st chapter Peter in- 
sists a successor to Judas must be "ordained to be a 
witness with us of His resurrection." Acts the 2d 
chapter pictures Peter on Solomon's porch deliver- 
ing his mighty Pentecostal sermon and when he be- 
gins to reach for his all-convincing climax he pours 
forth a mighty torrent of eloquence about the glori- 
ous fact that an empty grave in their midst witnesses 
an unanswerable proof of a new-found gladness and 
hope. That the prophets had written it down, that 
God had pledged the resurrection of Christ. "This 
JESUS HATH GOD RAISED UP WHEREOF WE 
ARE ALL. WITNESSES;." "Therefore -being, by the 
right hand of God,- exalted and having received of the 



102 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed 
forth this which ye now see and hear" — "Therefore 
let all the House of Israel now know assuredly that 
God hath made that same JESUS WHOM YE 
HAVE CRUCIFIED, both Lord and Christ." The big 
throng began to ask what they should do. Peter 
shouted the way of deliverance "Repent and be bap- 
tized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 
unto the remission of your sins/' and three thousand 
people came trooping into the Kingdom. 

Listen to him over there in the room of that coun- 
cil that had so lately condemned Jesus. "Be it known 
unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by 
the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom ye crucified, 
whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth 
this man stand before you whole." 

A little later when that same council told Peter to 
keep his mouth still and say no more in the name of 
Jesus, both Peter and John replied "Whether it be 
right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more 
than unto God, Judge ye, for we cannot but speak the 
things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19). 
Some time later after being arrested and jailed and 
in peril of death, arraigned by the council and com- 
manded to keep still about their Lord, Peter and the 
apostles replied courageously "We ought to obey 
God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised 
up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him 
hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince 
and Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and for- 
giveness of sins and we are witnesses of these things" 
(Acts 5:29). I tell you my brethren when those dis- 
ciples got it soundly into their souls that Jesus Christ 
had risen from the dead ; when they appreciated the 
magnitude and scope of that wonderful hope they 






PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION 103 

could not be run off from their position and all the 
councils of hell could not stop their mouths. On the 
basis of their belief in the resurrection they believed 
Jesus was both Lord and Christ; they believed that 
God had exalted Him to be a Saviour and they 
shouted it to the tops of their voices that every blessed 
man and woman should repent and be baptized in 
the name of this risen, exalted Saviour and they would 
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The resurrection 
of Jesus proved that He had made ample atonement 
for sin and since He had come from the dead He was 
an all-powerful Saviour. When Peter and John were in 
the temple for prayer and they healed a man lame 
from his birth the people marveled at the power of 
Peter and John. Peter jumped upon the porch and 
said, "You people look on us as though by our own 
power of holiness we have made this man to walk. 
Let me explain it to you." "The God of our fathers 
has lately glorified His Son Jesus. The man you 
delivered up and denied before Pilate — the Prince of 
Life that you killed, God hath lately raised from the 
dead whereof we are witnesses; through faith in His 
name hath this man been made strong, whom ye see 
and know." Acts 3d chapter. 

When the message of those disciples was shot 
through with conviction about the sovereign Lordship 
and Saviourhood of Jesus Christ attested by the res- 
urrection they were ministers of power. "And with 
great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrec- 
tion of the Lord Jesus : and great grace was upon them 
all" (Acts 4:33). 

We clearly see how sound belief in the resurrected 
Saviour transformed mere weaklings who "trusted that 
it had been He who should redeem Israel." Trans- 
formed them, I say, into young giants. These d'e- 



104 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

spondent pessimists whose hopes were dead and buried 
in Joseph's tomb became sturdy triumphant apostles 
by a living faith in a resurrected Lord. There is no 
other way to account for this transformation and spir- 
itual infilling of power except the solid veritable fact 
that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and removed all 
doubts by a living personal appearance to them. 

For centuries there have been belabored efforts 
of industrious men to show that Jesus did not actual- 
ly rise from the dead. Look at those who have occu- 
pied a negative position on this or any other funda- 
mental doctrine. What is the strength of their follow- 
ing? Feeble indeed. Those who believe not in the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ are as devoid of spiritual 
power as are people who have not believed on Jesus 
Christ at all. I tell you, my brethren, moral passion, 
spiritual energy, heroic self-sacrifice in the cause of 
righteousness are found in the heart and life of the 
man who heroically believes and faithfully preaches a 
risen, reigning, sovereign Saviour. Yea, the conscience 
of the world is on the side of orthodox faith. 

I know that my Redeemer lives; 

He lives, who once was dead; 
To me in grief He comfort gives; 

With peace He crowns my head. 

He lives, triumphant o'er the grave, 
At God's right hand on high, 

My ransomed soul to keep and save, 
To bless and glorify. 

He lives, that I may also live, 
And now His grace proclaim; 

He lives, that I may honor give 
To His most holy name. 

Let strains of heavenly music rise, 
While all their anthems sing 

To Christ, my precious sacrifice, 
And ever-living King. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE RETURN OF THE LORD 

BY 
REV. W. B. HINSON, D.D., LLD. 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 

[HEN my grey hair was brown, and I an eager- 
hearted boy wandered about the dreary house 
4->^tj that only needed mother's presence to make it a 
home again, no fact thrilled me more than the quiet 
announcement by father, "Your mother is coming 
back to-morrow." 

And so whether we call ourselves Pre-millennialist, 
or Post-millennialist, or Pro-millennialist, our hearts, 
loyal ever to the great King, will beat high with 
rapture and loving desire at the mention of the Lord's 
return ; even the return of the Saviour who for us 
went through Gethsemane to Golgotha, and who is 
to us at this hour the Lover of our souls and the Lord 
of our lives. 

Therefore whatever our distinguishing views re- 
garding the future may be, I can allow no man to 
place his fellow outside the circle of sympathetic de- 
votion to the Lord Jesus ; or to be regarded unfriendly 
in this hour when the coming back of Him we love 
is the central thought of our meditation. 

Now I have never argued a single five minutes about 
the return of the Lord, except on the New Testament 
basis. For the Scriptures tell us all we authoritatively 
know about it, and they are the common property of 
the whole family of God, and belong to no single school 
of thought, and must not be subjected to any private 
interpretation, nor be profaned by any repudiation. 
And as I claim for my brother the right to approach 



108 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

for himself to these perennial springs of living water, 
even so I assert it to be my own privileged right to 
approach the sacred writings, and for myself receive 
the truth that enriches my mind, soul and life. And 
because any statement about this glad fact of the 
Master's return must be rooted in the teaching of the 
inspired Word, I but impatiently listen, and then with 
an unresponsive heart, to any one who from sources 
of information external to the Bible treats of the com- 
ing again of the Lord Jesus. For it must be ever 
borne in mind that the Lord's Word is the Book of 
the Lord's return. 

Therefore I shall now place before you the fact of 
the coming back to the earth of Jesus Christ as the 
New Testament discloses it: grouping some of its 
major statements in the way they stand related to my 
mind and heart and life. And while so doing, I wish 
for myself and for you the consciousness of the Holy 
Spirit's presence, and the realized love of the Lord in 
our souls, that whether our heads keep in close touch 
or not, our hearts may assuredly burn within us dur- 
ing the brief minutes of our remaining together. 

Now the certainty of our Lord's return is one of 
the clearest revelations of the New Testament. 

Seven times in the twenty-four chapters of the first 
Gospel does Jesus Himself affirm "The coming of the 
Son of Man." And thrice in the fourteenth chapter of 
John does the same Master assert, "I will come again." 
And in each of the four Gospels, it is affirmed over 
and over and over again, that the Lord will return to the 
earth. And the seven writers of the New Testament, 
and if the authorship of Paul concerning the Book of 
Hebrews is questioned, then the eight men who gave 
us the entire New Testament, all declare the fact 



THE EETURN OF THE LOED 109 

of His return concerning whom the angel at His 
ascension said, "This Jesus who was received up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
as ye beheld Him going into heaven." And the Apos- 
tle Paul in eleven of his epistles gives striking prom- 
inence to this great truth ; even in his letter to the 
Romans ; the First and Second to the Corinthians ; the 
Ephesians ; the Philippians and the Colossians ; the 
First and Second Thessalonians ; the First and Second 
of Timothy and the Epistle to Titus. And a brief 
glance at the uses to which this doctrine is put as an 
urge to right speech and conduct and attitude of 
life, attests the permeating influence of this sure fact 
throughout the entire New Testament. For in Mat- 
thew 25, the parable of the Ten Virgins is followed 
by the counsel, "Watch therefore, for ye know not 
the day nor the hour;" while in Mark 8 and verse 38 
men are warned against being ashamed of the Christ, 
by the declaration of Jesus that of all such the Son 
of Man shall be ashamed when He cometh in the 
glory of His Father and the holy angels ; in Luke at 
the 21st chapter and in the 36th verse Christ says, 
"Watch ye at every season, making supplication, that 
ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall 
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man ;" 
and in John 14, among the great facts of God and 
Christ and heaven is placed the statement of Jesus, 
I will come again. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter 
urged the people to repent that their sins might be 
blotted out, and to trust in the Jesus whom the heav- 
en must receive until the times of restoration of all 
things ; while Paul in Romans 8 affirms the groaning 
creation is ever awaiting the redemption of our body ; 
in the First of Corinthians, chapter 1 and the 7th 



110 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

verse he advises, See that ye come behind in no gift, 
waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
and in his second letter to them, he, in chapter 4 
and verse 14, knows that He who raised up the Lord 
Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus and shall pre- 
sent us with you; to the Ephesians in chapter 1, 
veres 10, he announces that in the dispensation of the 
fullness of the times God might gather together in 
one all things in Christ; the Philippians he urges in 
chapter 1, verse 10, to approve things that are excel- 
lent that they may be sincere and void of offence unto 
the day of Christ; the Colossians he cheers in chap- 
ter 3 and the 4th verse by the fact that when Christ 
who is our life shall be manifested, then shall ye 
also with Him be manifested in glory; for the Thes- 
salonians in chapter 3, verse 13 he prays to the end 
He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness 
before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord 
Jesus with all His saints ; while in the second letter 
to them in chapter 3 and verse 5, he tenderly trusts 
that the Lord may direct your hearts into the love 
of God and into the patience of Christ ; to his own son 
in the faith Timothy, he counsels in the first epistle 
and the 14th verse of the 6th chapter, to keep this com- 
mandment without spot, without reproach until the 
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he adds in 
his second epistle to Timothy the loving admonition, 
"I charge thee in the sight of God and' of Christ Jesus, 
who shall judge the living and the dead, and by His 
appearing and His Kingdom, preach the word, be 
urgent in season, out of season;" while to Titus, an- 
other son in the faith, he affirms in the 2d chapter and 
the 11th verse that the grace of God hath appeared, 
instructing us that we should live soberly, righteous- 



THE EETUEN OF THE LOED 111 

ly, and Godly in this present world, looking for the 
blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the Great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. And if advising 
regarding the collection for the saints, in First Co- 
rinthians 16 and 1, which immediately follows the 
great chapter on the resurrection of the righteous, 
which fact synchronizes as we shall soon see with 
the return of the Lord ; or if furnishing a motive 
for church attendance as in Hebrews 10 and verse 
25, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves togeth- 
er, but exhorting one another, and so much the more 
as ye see the day drawing nigh ; right up to the weight- 
ier matters of keeping the spirit rightly adjusted to 
God that so the entire life may be attuned to the In- 
finite, the continuous persuasive and urgent constraint 
is the appeal to and argument of the return of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Also concerning the times or the descriptive char- 
acterization of the age when our Lord will return, 
we have some determining Scriptures that are perti- 
nent and plainly perceived. In Matthew 24 and 37, 
Jesus Himself says, "But as were the days of Noah, 
so shall be the coming of the Son of Man, for as in 
those days which were before the flood, they were 
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
riage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 
and they knew not until the flood came and took them 
all away, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man." 
Then in Luke 17 and verse 28, the Master gives an 
other illustrative description of the times of His ap- 
pearing. "Likewise even as it came to pass in the 
days of Lot : they drank, they bought, they sold, they 
planted, they builded, but in the days that Lot went 
out from Soxiom it rained fire and brimstone from 



112 BAPTIST DOGTKINES 

heaven and destroyed them all, after the same man- 
ner shall it be in the day that the Son of Man is re- 
vealed," and after thus clearly defining and describing 
the kind of world that would await Christ at His re- 
turn, He in the next chapter, the 18th of Luke and 
verse 8 asks the illuminative and deeply suggestive 
question, When the Son of Man cometh shall He find 
faith on the earth ; while in Matthew 24 and verse 7 
in close proximity to the end of the age, the Saviour 
asserts, Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom 
against kingdom and there shall be famines and pesti- 
lences and earthquakes, and many shall be offended 
and false prophets shall arise, and iniquity shall 
abound and the love of many shall wax cold ere the 
end comes. 

The Apostle Paul connects with the coming again 
of the Saviour a clearly defined forecast of the times 
of His appearing as in Second Thessalonians, chapter 
2 he writes, Now we beseech you touching the com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to- 
gether unto Him, to the end that ye be not quickly 
shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled either by 
spirit or by word or by epistle as from us as that the 
day of the Lord is just at hand. Let no man beguile 
you in any wise, for it will not be, except the falling 
away come first, and the man of sin be revealed the 
son of perdition, he that opposeth himself against all 
that is called God or that is worshiped : so that he 
sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as 
God, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath 
of His mouth and bring to naught by the manifesta- 
tion of His coming. And the same Apostle writing 
in Second Timo-thy, chapter 3, adds, But know this, 
that in the last days grievous times shall come. For 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 113 

men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, 
haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, 
unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slander- 
ers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, 
traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure 
rather than lovers of God, holding a form of Godliness 
but having denied the power thereof; and he adds in 
verse 13, evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceiv- 
ing and being deceived. And then again in the 4th 
chapter of this same epistle he charges Timothy by 
the Lord Jesus who shall judge the living and the 
dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, to be a 
faithful minister of Jesus, for He says the time will 
come when they will not endure the sound doctrine, 
but having itching ears, will heap to themselves teach- 
ers after their own lusts, and will turn away their 
ears from the truth and turn aside unto fables; and 
a confirmation to these utterances of Paul is Peter's 
statement in the 3d chapter of his second epistle, 
where in the 2d verse he bids his readers be mind- 
ful of the words which were spoken by the holy proph- 
ets and of the commandments of the apostles of the 
Lord, knowing this first, that in the last days mock- 
ers shall come with mockery, walking after their own 
lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His com- 
ing? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the beginning 
of the creation, for this they wilfully forget, that 
there were heavens from of old, and the earth com- 
pacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of 
God, by which means the world that then was, being 
overflowed with water perished, but the heavens that 
now are, and the earth, by the same word have been 
stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of 



114 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But the 
day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which 
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and 
the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and 
the earth and the works that are therein shall be 
burned up, nevertheless we according to His promise 
look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwell- 
eth righteousness ; in the light of which truth he asks, 
Seeing then that these things are thus all to be dis- 
solved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all 
holy living and Godliness, looking for and earnestly 
desiring the coming of the day of God. 

It would seem fitting at this stage of our inquiry to 
place before our minds the clear presentation of the 
coming from heaven of our Lord, given the church 
at Thessalonica by the Apostle Paul. In the 4th 
chapter of his first letter to that church he says, 
I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning 
them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not even as the 
rest, who have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen 
asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him, for this we 
say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that 
are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord 
shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep, 
for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first ; 
then we that are alive, that are left, shall together 
with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the 
Lord. Now this Scripture affirms three facts which 
bring us within view of our objective in this study. 
And those facts are these, The resurrection of our 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 115 

Lord; and that of all the righteous dead who fall 
asleep in Him ; and the transforming and transferring 
of all the saints who are awaiting His appearing when 
the Lord returns. 

Over against the hesitancy manifested in some quar- 
ters regarding the literal and actual and physical res- 
urrection of our Lord, it were well to place the arrest- 
ing truth that the Apostle to the Gentiles hazarded 
the entire Christian faith on the sure fact of Christ 
having risen from the dead. If Christ hath not been 
raised, he exclaims in First Corinthians 15:14, If 
Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching 
vain, and your faith is also vain, and ye are yet in your 
sins, and we are found false witnesses of God, and the 
dead are perished. And the logic of our apostle bears 
upon our present study, inasmuch as Christ in His 
resurrection life is the first-fruits, and afterward they 
that are Christ's at His coming are raised, at which 
time the faithful waiting saints are caught up to be 
with Jesus Christ. So in the chapter from which we 
last quoted he defines his gospel in most notable 
terms, as being the declaration that Christ died for our 
sins, was buried, and rose again. But passing from 
the demonstrable and demonstrated fact of Christ's 
resurrection, we proceed upon it as an immovable 
fountain, to look in the second place upon the truth 
that at His coming the bodies of the righteous and of 
them alone are raised from the dead. And our think- 
ing in this connection will instantly and naturally re- 
vert to the 20th chapter of the Revelation with its 
plain statement of a resurrection which is called First, 
which is to be followed after a thousand years have 
passed, by another resurrection which it mentions as 
being the Second. Perhaps we had better refresh 



11G BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

our memories by hearing the entire quotation ere we 
proceed to ascertain that the passage contains no 
truth either new or foreign to New Testament Scrip- 
ture. "They lived and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years. But the rest of the dead lived not until 
the thousand years should be finished. This is the 
first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath 
part in the first resurrection ; over these the second 
death hath no power ; but they shall be priests of God 
and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand 
years." Now it is unwise to state that this is the 
only intimation of a resurrection peculiar to believers, 
and in which the unregenerate have neither part nor 
lot. For as we may remember the Apostle Paul ever- 
more emphasizes the suggestive fact that the dead in 
Christ rise first, as in that great resurrection chap- 
ter, the 15th of First Corinthians; which is conspicu- 
ously out of place at the burial of an unbeliever in 
Jesus, and should never be so profaned, inasmuch as 
it concerns no soul save the dead in Christ, which 
will easily be ascertained and must inevitably be con- 
ceded when the' words of the apostle fall upon our 
ears, or rest beneath our eyes, and we come to observe 
that all the dead mentioned in this chapter are raised 
in incorruption, in glory, in power, and in possession 
of the spiritual body, while of them all it is declared 
they demonstrate that death and the grave had over 
them no hurting power, but they rejoiced in the vic- 
tory given them by Jesus Christ as they bear the im- 
age of the heavenly, and so make evident the fact as 
the 23d verse affirms, that they are Christ's at His 
coming. But Paul is not alone in the enunciation of 
a resurrection impossible to any save the redeemed', 
for in Luke 14:14, the Saviour Himself speaks of a 



THE RETUEN OF THE LOED 117 

compensation rendered to the charitable at the res- 
urrection of the just ; while in the 20th chapter of Luke 
in checking the craftiness of the Sadducees in their 
little conundrum of the woman who had seven hus- 
bands, he said they which shall be accounted worthy to 
obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead 
die no more, for they are equal unto the angels and are 
sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Hence ac- 
cording to Jesus, there is a resurrection of the just, in 
which they only participate who are worthy, and who 
die no more, but who are equal unto the angels and 
who are the children of God by virtue of being partici- 
pants in the first resurrection, or are participants in 
the first resurrection because they are the children of 
God, and therefore have their place among ail those 
favored ones to whom His words to His disciples in 
John 14:18 apply, where He says, "I will come for 
you." In the letter to the Philippians after the apos- 
tle has exhorted the Christians of Philippi, he of him- 
self says in chapter 3, verse 10, That I may know 
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fel- 
lowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto 
His death, if by any means I may attain unto the res- 
urrection from the dead. Now there can be no need 
of seeking to attain along such heroic spiritual lines as 
those mentioned by the apostle a resurrection that is 
consequent on natural immortality. But the apostle 
is mentioning a resurrection which as Christ affirmed 
necessitated all its children being the children of God, 
and of those alone who as stated in Colossians 3 and 
verse 4 appear with Christ in glory, w r hen Christ 
who is our life shall appear. And that we may all 
have part in this resurrection unto life and glory may 
well cause us to pray each for the other, the great 



118 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

prayer of Paul in Second Thessalonians 3 and 5, The 
Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into 
the patient waiting for Christ, for assuredly the an- 
swer to this prayer will insure us participation in what 
Hebrews 11 :35, terms the better resurrection, and give 
us to be partakers in what Peter in his first epistle, 
chapter 1, verse 13, charges believers to strive for, 
when he bids them set their hope perfectly on the 
grace that is to be brought unto you at the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ, and that which John desires for 
his little children when in his first epistle 2 :28, he 
says tenderly, Abide in Him, that when He shall be 
manifested we may have boldness and not be ashamed 
before Him at His coming. 

The effect of the appearance of the returning Lord 
upon those who are alive when He comes is conveyed 
to us in the Scripture which we have studied concern- 
ing "the Rapture" as it has been termed. Then we 
who are alive and remain, says the apostle, shall be 
caught up. We who remain ! I recall how in First Co- 
rinthians 15:6, Paul says, "After that He was seen of 
over five hundred brethren at once of whom the great- 
er part remain, but some are fallen asleep." So that 
those mentioned in Corinthians were characterized as 
men who remain, and these mentioned in Thessaloni- 
ans are we who remain. Well what will happen to 
the remaining ones for such there will be, even a gen- 
eration of saints that shall not see death, but who shall 
escape the tomb as did Enoch of old, and shall have 
no experience of the seeming victory of either death 
of the grave. Clearly the change wrought in these 
spectators of the Lord's appearing and the synchroniz- 
ing resurrection of the just, has been expressed ade- 
quately enough for this meditation already by the 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 119 

phrase, They will be transformed and transferred at 
the same time. For the corruptible, the weakness, 
with all of dishonor, and all included in Paul's phrase, 
"The body of our humiliation," then will disappear ; 
and they will be clothed upon with the changed and 
glorified and spiritual body, so that they also can rise 
with those upon whom has been wrought the mighty 
miracle of the first resurrection, and thus they shall 
pass to be forever with the Lord. 

Now that Christ taught the duty of a constant 
watching for His return and the resultant prepared- 
ness for the great event, can be determined by a 
glance at the language He used while upon the earth, 
and the counsels He gave after ascending to the glo- 
ry, as well as from the utterances of the apostles 
who companioned with and were inspired by His life, 
teaching, and Spirit. In Matthew 24 and verse 42 we 
find the Lord saying to His disciples, "Watch there- 
fore, for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. 
But know this, that if the master of the house had 
known in what watch the thief was coming, he would 
have watched and would not have suffered his house 
to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready ; 
for in an hour that ye think not, the Son of Man 
cometh. Blessed is that servant whom his lord when 
he cometh shall find so doing." "Watch ye therefore," 
He says again in Mark 13, verse 34, "for ye know not 
when the Master of the house cometh, whether at 
even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the 
morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." 
"Let your loins be girded about." He adds in Luke 
12, verse 35, "and your lamps burning, and be ye your- 
selves like unto men looking for their Lord, when He 



120 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

shall return from the marriage feast, that when He 
cometh and knocketh they may straightway open un- 
to Him. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord 
when He cometh shall find watching. Verily I say 
unto you, that if He shall come in the second watch 
and if in the third watch and find them so, blessed 
are those servants." And in John 16 and verse 16, 
He further says, "A little while, and ye behold me 
no more, and again a little while and ye shall see me, 
and because I go to the Father. And ye therefore 
now have sorrow ; but I will see you again and your 
heart shall rejoice and' your joy no one taketh away 
from you." And then from the heaven above, the 
risen Lord in Revelation 3 and verse 3, admonishes 
the Sardis church to, "Remember therefore how thou 
hast received and didst hear; and keep it and repent. 
If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a 
thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come 
upon thee." While in the 11th verse he adds, "I come 
quickly ; hold fast that which thou hast that no one 
take thy crown." And on the last page of the New 
Testament, the same glorified Saviour in Revelation 
22, verse 7, affirms, "Behold I come quickly. Blessed 
is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this 
book." "And behold," He continues in verse 12, "I 
come quickly and My reward is with Me to render to 
each man according as his work is." That the apostles 
of Jesus had learned this great lesson in the school of 
the Master Himself is readily seen. For Paul in Ro- 
mans 13, verse 11, says, "And this, knowing the season, 
that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep; 
for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first 
believed. The night is far spent, and the day is at 
hand ; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 121 

and let us put on the armor of light." And when he 
writes to the Philippians in chapter 3, verse 20 he 
says, "For our citizenship is in heaven ; whence also 
we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who 
shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it 
may be conformed to the body of His glory." And 
in Colossians 3 and verse 4, he simply says, "For ye 
died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When 
Christ who is our life shall be manifested, then shall 
ye also with Him be manifested in glory." For he 
continues in First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 
2, Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord 
so cometh as a thief in the night. But ye brethren, 
are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you 
as a thief. And in Second Thessalonians the 2d chap- 
ter, after he has assured them that the return of the 
Lord will follow the falling away, and the revealing 
of the wicked one, he significantly says, That wicked, 
whom the Lord shall consume with the brightness 
of His appearing; and then he goes on to pray in 
chapter 3 and the 5th verse that the Lord may direct 
your hearts into the love of God and into the patience 
of Christ. The writer to the Hebrews in chapter 10 
and verse 37 in the same strain affirms, For yet a very 
little while, "He that cometh shall come and shall not 
tarry." And following in this same path Peter in his 
first epistle chapter 4, verse 7 says, "But the end of 
all things is at hand, be ye therefore of sound mind, 
and be sober unto prayer." And in the 4th verse of the 
5th chapter he continues, And when the Chief Shep- 
herd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of 
glory that fadeth not away. And in his second epis- 
tle in chapter 3 after declaring that one day with the 
Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as 



122 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

one day, he continues in verse 10, But the day of the 
Lord will come as a thief. ''Wherefore beloved," he 
adds in verse 14, "seeing that ye look for such things, 
give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without 
spot and blameless in His sight." 

Now it is most regrettable that ever believers in the 
Lord's return should be charged by any with slothful- 
ness in the Lord's work or inattention to the large 
affairs of the Kingdom of God. For in the charge lies 
not only a slander against the fellow-members of 
Christ's body, but an evidenced ignorance of the en- 
tire meaning and scope and purpose of this fact of the 
Lord's return. For whoso thinks expectancy regarding 
the coming of Jesus begets indifference to the com- 
mands of Jesus, knows not what an urgent dynamic 
is supplied by this looking for the glorious appearing 
of our Lord. For surely this ill effect of the doctrine 
and truth of the Lord's return would be a startling 
surprise to the Apostle Paul, who when he would 
constrain the church at Corinth to increased diligence 
in the service of God, could find no more powerful 
appeal than that in First Corinthians 1 :7, See that 
ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you 
unto the end, that ye may be unreprovable in the 
day of our Lord Jesus Christ; and to whom in his 
solemn judgment parable in the 3d of First Corinthians 
he solemnly declares each man's work shall be made 
manifest, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire it- 
self shall prove each man's work of what sort it is, so 
that if any man's work shall abide which he built 
thereon, he shall receive a reward: if any man's work 
shall be burned he shall suffer loss; and to whom he 
again in the 4th chapter of the same epistle, 5th 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 123 

verse, advises to judge nothing before the time, until 
the Lord come, Who will both bring to light the hid- 
den things of darkness, and make manifest the coun- 
sels of the hearts, and then shall each man have his 
praise from God; from all which Scriptures we can- 
not but see how no truce sounded in the ears of those 
same men to whom at the close of his wonderful res- 
urrection argument he cries in First Corinthians 15: 
58, "Wherefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in 
vain in the Lord." And to the church in Philippi, 
he in Philippians 1 :6 declares, Being confident of this 
very thing that He who began a good work in you 
will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ; and in the 
10th verse he prays that they may approve the things 
that are excellent, that they may be sincere and void 
of offence unto the day of Christ, being filled with 
the fruits of righteousness. To the saints in Thessa- 
lonica he affirms in First Thessalonians 5:10 that 
the purpose for which salvation is imparted by Je- 
sus, indeed the very reason why He died for us is 
that whether we wake or sleep we should live togeth- 
er with Him ; and after bidding his son Timothy fight 
the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, 
he gives him charge in the sight of God in First 
Timothy 6:14, That thou keep the commandment 
without spot, without reproach, until the appearing of 
our Lord Jesus Christ ; while in Second Timothy chap- 
ter 4: and verse 1 he uses the impassioned clarion 
call that may profitably ring in the heart of every 
pastor among us, "I charge thee in the sight of God and 
of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the 
dead and by His appearing and His Kingdom, Preach 



124 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, 
rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching, 
and so make full proof of thy ministry." And to all 
this we may add as we have already hinted that it is 
not the members of our churches who are looking for 
and earnestly desiring the coming of the Lord as 
Peter remarks in his second epistle chapter 3 and 
verse 12, who are likely to absent themselves from our 
Sunday night services and our prayer meetings, for 
these faithful souls will be found heeding the admo- 
nition of Hebrews 10, verse 25, "Not forsaking our 
own assembling together, as the custom of some is, 
but exhorting one another, and so much the more as 
ye see the day drawing nigh." 

Now Peter and John and Jude are at one with Paul 
in using the dynamic of the return of the Lord as a 
quickening fact for all who hold this blessed hope. 
For Peter in his first epistle, the 1st chapter, verse 
13, energetically cries, Wherefore gird up the loins 
of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly 
on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ, as children of obedience, not 
fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts 
in the time of your ignorance, but like as He who 
called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all 
manner of living; and he adds in the second letter 
chapter 3, verse 14, Wherefore, beloved, seeing that 
ye look for such things, give diligence that ye may 
be found in peace without spot and blameless in His 
sight; while in the 11th verse of that same chapter he 
asks the question pertinent to our present study, See- 
ing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what 
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and 
Godliness. And we shall doubtless recall how the 






THE RETURN OF THE LORD 125 

Apostle John in his first epistle chapter 3 and verse 
3, after affirming that we are the sons of God, and as- 
suring us that we know when He shall be manifested, 
we shall be like Him for we shall see Him even as 
He is, goes on to declare the essential effect of which 
this glowing hope is the potent cause as he says, 
And every one that hath this hope set on Him, that 
is the soon appearing Lord, purifieth himself even as 
He is pure; while in the 28th verse of the preceding- 
chapter he, the disciple, who heard Christ describe the 
fruitfulness of life consequent on abiding in Christ 
uses the Lord's own phrase as he says, Abide in Him 
that if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness 
and not be ashamed before Him at His coming; and 
in the 17th verse of the 4th chapter he writes, Herein 
is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in 
the day of judgment because as He is even so are we 
in this world. In his short Epistle of 25 verses Jude 
tells of Enoch the seventh from Adam who prophe- 
sied saying, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thou- 
sand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all," 
then bids those to whom he wrote remember how the 
apostles of Jesus Christ told how there should be 
mockers in the last times. But, he adds, Ye, beloved, 
building up yourselves in your most holy faith, pray- 
ing in the Holy Spirit, be looking for the mercy of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. And we only turn the page 
from Jud'e's Epistle to find in the last book of the 
New Testament the charge twice repeated within the 
space of seven verses to, "Hold fast till I come." Yet 
it may be that the most outstanding use of this great 
constraint to holy living and earnest purpose, and cer- 
tainly the one which most frequently occurs to my own 
heart is the sentence written by Paul to Titus, at 



126 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

which we have already hastily glanced, but at which 
we now do well to gaze with high resolve and holy 
intent to profit thereby. In the 11th verse of the 
2d chapter of his letter to Titus, the Apostle says, 
"For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing sal- 
vation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live 
soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present world." 
Now that would seem to cover the entire life of man. 
For my duty to myself is to live soberly, seriously, 
thoughtfully, earnestly, and not to play the fool or to 
lose myself in flippancy or to be unaware of right 
estimate of values, or to be unable to distinguish mag- 
nitudes, or to fail to see the crown of gold because 
absorbed in the aggregated refuse within the grip of 
the muckrake ; this I say is the thing I owe to myself, 
to live soberly. And my duty to my fellowman is to 
live righteously, not to be selfish until I become dis- 
honest, either in act, word, will, or coveting intention, 
to provide things honest in the sight of all men, to be a 
man of honorableness, living above the fog of per- 
sonal gain-seeking, to live righteously, that is what I 
owe to my brother, even to live the righteousness that 
reminds of the all round rectitude of God Himself. 
And my duty toward my God, is to live Godly, and not 
as an enthusiastic fool, or a trifling agnostic, but to 
earnestly endeavor to practice the Golden Rule God- 
ward, and to be fair and right towards God, this it is 
that I owe to God. But where is it to be found and 
what is the name of the persuasion, the constraint, 
the urge, the propulsion, the dynamic that can enable 
one to so live as to fulfil this whole duty of man? 
Well, Paul places it before Titus as he says, Live 
soberly, righteously and Godly, looking for that bless- 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 127 

ed hope and appearing of the glory of the Great God 
and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Now I fear that we 
are accustomed to hear that phrase, "The blessed 
hope," used only in connection with death, and ap- 
plied to those who have passed through the gates of 
death into life led by the pole star of a hope whose 
blessedness is disclosed to them in the presence of 
death. But Paul in true and more helpful fashion tells 
us that a hope which in its effect upon the threefold 
and seemingly all-embracing life of man is eminently 
and gloriously blessed in this same truth of our 
Lord's return. And so it is brought before us that 
whoso rightly realizes the imminency of the Lord in 
the sense of being at the door, so that, by virtue of 
that consciousness, he becomes — as Christ bade — like 
unto men that wait, has received a power that will 
enable him to be sober and righteous and Godly to- 
ward himself, his neighbor, and his God. And I pause 
to remark that as a man, who desires whatever of 
spiritual impetus and power the good Lord may be 
willing in His grace to impart, I do not wish to de- 
prive my life of so mighty a force as this hope that 
can so blessedly empower my relation towards self, 
my fellows, and my God. 

And this leads us in logical order to ponder, ere we 
close, the rich personal and relative value of this 
blessed hope of our Lord's Return. For not even 
to those with whom thought is in its infancy need 
any one apologize for calling attention to the applica- 
tion of this great truth upon that outlying world we 
call Nature. And surely the profoundest word con- 
cerning this aspect of our study to the Christian man, 
is Paul's wonderful analysis of its past, present, and 
future of creation, in the 8th chapter of the Romans. 



128 BAPTIST DOCTKINES 

The creation, he says in the 20th verse, was made sub- 
ject to vanity. It was brought — he says of the natural 
world — under subjection to hostile forces and an un- 
favorable environment such as it had not previously 
known. And it underwent change, and that of an in- 
jurious kind, by becoming subject to vanity, and so 
the Garden of Eden is not so far removed from which 
Tennyson wrote, 

"For Nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal, 
The May fly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow speared by the 

shrike, 
And the whole little world where I sit is a world of plunder 

and prey." 

But the creation, continues the apostle, was not sub- 
jected to vanity willingly, or wittingly, or of its own 
accord and choice, or through its own fault, or of its 
own volition, but it was subjected to vanity through 
the fault of another, even the sin of man to whom was 
given the fair heritage of a world fresh from its in- 
finite Creator's fashioning, and unflecked by a single 
stain, and so, absolutely faultless. And the creation, 
in the bold and realistic phrase of Paul, groaneth and 
travaileth in pain together until now. It was not sub- 
jected wittingly; it does not submit to subjection wil- 
lingly, so audaciously affirms the apostle in his 
startling boldness, speaking as though the conscious 
heart of the world itself was burdened with the pent- 
up pain of a humiliation, which it ever unsuccessful- 
ly, yet still vehemently sought to cast ofif and out. Yet 
he says in a realism of language that would surely 
suggest inspiration, it still retains an earnest expecta- 
tion of deliverance from its subjugation to a power that 
is unwelcome and unfriendly and foreign and ab- 
horred. And further, . so continues the apostle, the 
creation shall be delivered from the bondage of cor- 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 129 

mption thrust upon it from without, and burdening 
it so grievously and long. And the time of its deliv- 
erance he does not merely suggest or hint at, or proph- 
ecy, but he clearly and challengingly asserts the cre- 
ation shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of 
the children of God, in the great day of the mani- 
festation of the sons of God, the day of the redemp- 
tion of the body of the saved children of God. And 
so he says the creation cursed by sin ever waiteth 
for the manifestation of the children of God. And 
while I have charged myself to keep within the limits 
of the New Testament in this present analysis, yet 
perhaps as one has referred to Tennyson for illustra- 
tion's sake, the privilege might be accorded of recall- 
ing how a Jewish seer, who is claimed by some of us 
as being a prophet as well as a poet, has pictured 
and foretold a coming day when instead of the thorn 
shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar 
shall come up the myrtle tree, and the wilderness 
shall be a pool of water, and the dry land springs 
of water, and there shall be streams in the desert, and 
when the mountains and the hills, no longer lava bur- 
dened and storm scarred, shall break forth into sing 
ing, and the trees of the fields shall clap their hand's, 
and there shall be no more curse, for the new heav- 
en shall have lost the baneful lightnings of the old 
beclouded firmament, and the new earth shall by the 
second Adam's power be brought back into its old 
time beauty of blessedness, and to an eternal security 
from breath of evil or shadow of disappointment or 
distress or sin. 

And also for the sake of the chosen people of God I 
find delight in pondering the Return of the Lord. 
That the Lord loveth Zion is good news for a people 



130 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

who have for millenniums been in the furnace of per- 
secution, and the by-word of the peoples of the entire 
earth. A minister in my city sometime ago declared 
that God had finished with the Jews when Christ died 
on Calvary. Finished! I recall how in his poem "In 
the Children's Hospital," the singer of England in re- 
ply to the surgeon's taunt, "All very well, but the good 
Lord Jesus has had His day," makes the nurse answer 
back, "Had, has it come, it has only dawned, it will 
come by and by." Finished with the Jews ! I refrain 
from passing backward beyond the first page of the 
New Testament, yet I remember how in Luke 13, I 
read of the lament of Jesus over Jerusalem doom, "O 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gath- 
ered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
own brood under her wings, and ye would not! Be- 
hold your house is left unto you desolate," but in the 
punctuation of God's program there is no full stop 
there, for the divine Lord goes on to say, "Ye shall 
not see Me, until ye shall say, Blessed is He that 
cometh in the name of the Lord." And this sentence 
from the lips of great David's greater Son, may have 
trembled upon the tongue of Paul when he cried in 
Romans 11, Hath God cast off His people? God 
forbid. God did not cast off His people. For if the 
casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, 
what shall the receiving of them be, but life from 
the dead? And it shall come to pass that in the place 
where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, 
there shall they be called the children of the Living 
God. Now I sincerely trust we are interested in 
God's chosen people, whose are the fathers; and who 
gave us the seers and singers, those poet-prophets of 
the Old Testament whose distant footsteps echo 



THE EETUEN OF THE LOKD 131 

through Hebrews 11 that Westminster Abbey of the 
earlier aristocracy of God, to which listening, our 
hearts thrill as we hear the passing of Abel and Enoch 
and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and 
Joseph and Moses and Gideon and Barak and Sam- 
son and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the 
prophets, and so come into the apprehension that 
the Old Testament Scriptures come to us from the 
Jews ; and when the realization also arrests us that 
the New Testament is of Jewish origin; and when to 
that Paul adds concerning those same Jews, "of whom 
as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, 
God blessed forever;" what Christian heart, I ask, 
can fail to rejoice that the great day is ever nearing, 
when there shall come to Zion the Deliverer, who 
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and whose 
feet shall again stand upon the Mount of Olives, and to 
whom as the angel affirms in Luke 1, verse 32, The 
Lord God shall give the throne of his father David, 
and He shall reign over the House of Jacob forever, 
and of His Kingdom there shall be no end. And so 
because of this I say, I wait with keen anticipation for 
the day of His appearing, when the time will be ripe 
for the fulfillment of this wonderful word in Hebrews 
8th chapter and 8th verse, When saith the Lord, I 
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel 
and with the house of Judah, not according to the old 
covenant that I made with their fathers, for this is 
the covenant that I will make with the house of Is- 
rael after those days saith the Lord. I will put My 
laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, 
and I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me 
a people. 

And if a distinctly personal word might be spoken 



132 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

in the confidence natural to this gathering of Christian 
men, I should like to say my derived gain resulting 
from the contemplation of the Return of the Lord, is 
beyond my expression, though not, thank God, outside 
my gratitude. For so much of the Bible was to me 
a sealed book until I learned to allow this great truth 
to occupy its rightful place in the inspired volume ; 
and so much that was incoherent because of improper 
adjustment, has been made plain by the Spirit of 
God, that I am constrained to glorify Him because 
He opened my eyes to this truth regarding His ap- 
pearing the second time without sin unto salvation. 
And when I ever remember, how, when the last of 
His chosen has joined the called out ones, even the 
Ecclesia, the chosen Church which is His Body, then 
the Bridegroom will come for His Bride, and the 
coming One will appear; why then with an increased 
devotion, with renewed energy, and with an empha- 
sized earnestness do I proclaim to men the unsearch- 
able riches of Christ, while the consciousness that for 
aught I to the contrary know, while I proclaim the 
cross, the cleansing blood, and the saving Christ, the 
final trophy of His grace ere the Rapture may be 
won by the truth and Spirit, is as the shining of a 
bright light before my eyes, as well as a most gracious 
restraint and constraint upon mind and heart and lip. 
And so because of personal blessing; the comfort, 
cheer, sustentation, and uplift flowing to my own soul 
and illumining and anchoring my own life ; I find my- 
self praying that my preaching brethren everywhere 
may come into the charm and cheer of what I love to 
call — after Paul's example — the blessed Hope. 

And so now when my hair that once was brown is 
grey, I should become eagerhearted as a boy again if 



THE RETURN OF THE LORD 133 

some authoritative voice concerning my mother long- 
since gone into the heavens, should affirm, "Your 
mother is coming back to-morrow." Even so I trust, 
and more also I humbly pray, does my heart leap up 
with joyful anticipation when Christ says in His last 
word to man, "Behold I come quickly," and from my 
glad soul there springs the swift reply, "Even so, come 
Lord Jesus." 






CHAPTER VII 
THE SUPREME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 

BY 

REV. LEE SCARBOROUGH. D.D. 






THE SUPREME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 

>HERE seems to run through the entire character 
\Sp\ and program of God, as revealed in His Word 
^^ and manifested in His people, an unspeakable 
passion for the salvation of lost men everywhere in the 
world. Especially is this divine energy exhibited in 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself 
throughout His entire history, as shown in prophe- 
cy, in His earthly ministry and transmuted into the 
lives of His people, was the embodiment of this un- 
speakable passion. To this He devoted His entire 
nature, and has by His Holy Spirit combined all of 
the energies of the redeemed powers of His people 
throughout twenty centuries. What is meant by this 
supreme passion of the gospel is that spiritual long- 
ing manifested everywhere in the gospel of Christ to 
save men from sin and redeem them to God and a 
life of holiness and service in Christ's Kingdom. 

It is proposed in this discussion to approach the 
subject from several points of view. 

I. This Passion As Experienced in God, the Father. 

It is seen not only in His character, but exhibited 
in His works and providences. 

1. As seen in His merciful attributes. 

The Father is everywhere in the Old Testament 
and in the New revealed as a benevolent, merciful 
and loving Father. This compassionate nature, long- 
ing for the salvation and uplift of humanity, seems to 



138 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

be one of the supreme attributes of the nature and 
character of God. It is true that He has the attri- 
butes of wrath and power, but probably His supreme 
attribute is that that manifests itself in mercy and 
love. 

2. As seen in His benevolent creation. 

God has made the world as a lap of beautiful lux- 
ury. The flowers, the birds, the gentle zephyrs, the 
kindliness shown everywhere in His creative power is 
but the manifestation of this loving attitude to a sin- 
ning and unsaved world. 

3. This merciful disposition is shown also in God's 
loving providences — His patience with men, His provi- 
sion for their bodies, their intellectual and spiritual 
beings. His visitation of sun and rain, of providential 
protection, is but the exposition of His loving at- 
tribute towards the spiritual and moral uplift of man, 
redeeming him from sin and its consequences every- 
where. 

4. This experience of compassion for a lost world 
is manifested also in the perfect holiness of God's 
nature. 

The high standards of righteousness and purity of 
character looking toward the best in humanity is but 
another form of God's message of compassion to a lost 
world. So we see that this supreme passion shown in 
the gospel of Jesus Christ is but the outgrowth and 
experience of the Father God in His nature and rela- 
tionship with man. 



THE SUPEEME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 139 

II. This Supreme Passion of the Gospel Is Especially 
Revealed by God in His Holy Word. 

The fact of this great truth in one form or another 
is revealed in almost every book of the Bible in such 
a fashion that it is the one supreme theme and cen- 
tral subject around which all revelation gathers. 

1. The history of man in the Garden of Eden; in 
Noah's flood; in God's dealings with Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and the other leaders 
of His specially chosen race, is but the long history 
of God's merciful compassion, seeking the salvation of 
man. 

2. This burning, consuming compassion for the 
salvation of men is revealed in Isaiah 58:10ff, John 3: 
16, and in many, many other places in the Word of 
God. The four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and 
the Epistles of Paul and Peter are but the continuous 
revelations and manifestations of this mighty passion 
which breathes and beats and burns through God's 
revelation. 

III. As Manifested through God. 

This compassionate concern for the salvation of men 
is not only experienced in the Father and revealed by 
Him in His Word, but it is manifested through Him as 
exhibited in the life of Christ and in the revelation of 
the Holy Spirit and His dealings with men. 

1. As seen in Christ Jesus. 

He is revealed as a loving Lamb, slain from the 
foundation of the world for the salvation of men. His 
earthly career of thirty-three years is but the exhibi- 
tion of this character in the Father. His three years 
of ministry among men was that of healing, soothing, 



140 BAPTIST DOCTKINES 

saving, uplifting, redeeming fallen humanity. His 
works everywhere and' in every place of these three 
years of glorious mercy and redemption are explained 
only by His unspeakably supreme passion for the 
salvation of men. His sufferings because of the cruel- 
ties of sinning humanity, especially shown in the 
garden of Gethsemane, on the cruel cross of Cal- 
vary, and in the immortal tomb of Joseph of Arima- 
thea, also exhibit the extremes to which He was wil- 
ling to go to give the world an exhibition of this su- 
preme compassion in the world's salvation. 

2. This compassionate concern for the salvation of 
men as the supreme subject in God's dealing with 
men is shown also in the history of the Holy Spirit 
as the third member of the Trinity. His constant and 
persistent patience and merciful dealings with men in 
their sin and rebellion, as the One who calls, con- 
victs, applies the gospel of salvation, regenerates, 
comforts and leads forth into the service of God the 
lost of the earth, He shows forth this same char- 
acteristic of the divine heart. He intercedes for us 
with groanings that cannot be uttered. He patient- 
ly deals with the impenitent, persistently follows the 
penitent and works in their hearts the graces of the 
gospel, issuing in their salvation and service. Without 
any limit of divine sacrifice, God thus through the 
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit follows man un- 
til his salvation is complete. 

The greatest exhibition of this compassionate con- 
cern of God for man is seen in the cross of Calvary 
on which the only begotten Son of God gave Himself 
freely for the salvation of men, and also in the per- 
sistent and patient call and benevolent working of the 
Holy Spirit in the behalf of men. 



THE SUPEEME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 141 

IV. This Passion of God thus Experienced, Revealed 
and Manifested Is Transplanted in the Heart of 
Man through the Regenerating Work of Jesus 
Christ and the Compassionate Dealings of the Holy 
Spirit. 

God not only has this profound, spiritual longing 
for the eternal welfare of men and has not only re- 
vealed it in His divinely-inspired Book and manifested 
it in the person of His only begotten Son and the 
operations of the Holy Spirit, but He also has the 
power through regeneration and spiritual impact to 
show forth this same supreme concern for the salva- 
tion of men in the life and ministry of His disciples. 

1. As seen in the early disciples. 

The wonderful ministry of John the Baptist, giving 
up all and dying a cruel death for the love he had 
for the Saviour under His call for service among 
men, is but God manifesting Himself in this com- 
passionate concern for the salvation of men. The 
story of the Apostle Peter under burning persecu- 
tion, sacrificially turning away from the appeal of the 
world to give himself to the service of Christ in saving 
men, is but the transplantation of this same passion 
found in the heart of the Father, in the ministry of 
the Saviour and the Holy Spirit. 

2. Nowhere else in history is there such a manifesta- 
tion of this transplantation of spirit as seen in the life, 
ministry and death of the Apostle Paul. In Romans 
9:1-3 and 10:1 is found the deepest expression of this 
divine passion in the heart of the great apostle. 
From the day he surrendered his soul in obedient 
service to Jesus Christ in Damascus until the day of 
his execution under the cruel ax of Roman persecu- 
tion, in perils, prisons, punishments of the most ex- 



142 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

treme and cruel nature, Paul showed forth the spirit 
which he caught from Jesus Christ, a longing that 
counted no cost too dear for its manifestation in the 
salvation of men. 

3. The spiritual passion for man's salvation is 
shown as an ingredient part and parcel of regeneration. 
Personal salvation comes wrapped up with the loving 
folds of this garment of compassion. Everywhere 
regeneration of the individual spirit seeks to propagate 
itself in the salvation of others through this loving 
compassion. Immediately on being saved Andrew 
thought of his brother Simon and went for him; and 
Phillip thought of his friend Nathaniel and sought his 
salvation. Each of these and all of their successors 
in personal soul-winning have but manifested this 
wonderful spiritual germ transplanted in the heart of 
man by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

4. This truth is manifested in the early stages of 
salvation in all lands and climes and ages. 

The testimony is almost universal that immediately 
when one is saved a mighty mission passion burns 
for the salvation of others — the mother for her child, 
the child for its mother, the brother for the sister, the 
companion for the companion, the friend for the 
friend, the disciple even for the most outcast among 
humanity's fallen race; there burns the same flame of 
compassion seeking their salvation. 

From these various points of view it seems the logic 
is overwhelming and the argument irresistible that 
there breathes through the whole character, revela- 
tion and manifestation of God, in creation, providence 
and revelation this masterful passion to save men 
from their sins and bring them back to God. 



THE SUPREME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 143 

V. The Need and Value of This Compassion. 

It is believed that the universal exhibition of this 
supreme passion of the gospel is the secret and suc- 
cess of all mission enterprise and evangelistic effort. 
The prevalence of this spirit pervading all the life of 
Christian people, their labors and institutions, is the 
only hope of the world's speedy redemption. 

1. The need of this masterful passion is universal. 
Every pulpit in Christendom should feel its mighty 

throb until the pew of every church and the uttermost 
mission field should burn with this passion. The Gos- 
pel ministry of to-day needs to go back to catch the 
sympathetic compassion which burned in a consum- 
ing flame in the heart of John the Baptist, the Apos- 
tles Peter and Paul, and the other early disciples. We 
should go back and have sympathetic and soul touch 
with the sufferings of Jesus Christ in the garden and 
on the cross. We should stand with Him overlook- 
ing Jerusalem on Mount Olivet and see what He saw 
when with a burst of tears He commiserated fallen and 
rebellious Jerusalem. In many places to-day the pul- 
pits of Christendom do not weep and burn and throb 
with this unspeakable passion of the gospel. There 
are many signs of revival both in pulpit and pew, 
hopeful and encouraging in this line. 

2. There is great need for this supreme passion to 
show itself in the homelife of our people, where moth- 
er and father shall have that parental, longing com- 
passion of soul for their offspring, in which the do- 
mestic atmosphere gives birth to the salvation of the 
children. 

This passion should burn in all of our institutional 
life, schools, seminaries, orphanages, hospitals, Sun- 



144 BAPTIST DOCTEINES 

day schools, young people's organizations, and in all 
the literature which we send forth for the spiritual up- 
lift of our people. There should be special manifesta- 
tion of this heart-yearning for the lost in all of the 
social and business and personal heart-touches which 
we have with each other in every phase of life. We 
cannot win this world with a compassionate pulpit un- 
less the pew manifests this spiritual concern in the 
daily and domestic life of the people. There is a great 
need for a recreation and a remanifestation of this spir- 
itual concern for a lost world. 

3. The exhibition of this spirit shown in the supreme 
passion of the gospel is the hope of the ministry and 
the institutions of our churches 

The ministry cannot preserve itself by its scholar- 
ship, by its eloquence, by its personal purity, nor by- its 
organizations. It can only do it through the power of 
God in its consuming and burning passion for the sal- 
vation of men. This same spirit is the hope- of our 
entire institutional life. Our churches howsoever rich 
in worldly goods, -howsoever conformable to the styles 
and fashions of the world, howsoever wise in its schol- 
arship, howsoever well organized and informed, how- 
soever well led by an inspired leadership, cannot func- 
tion and save themselves from the^ d'estituti-on of spirit- 
ual death except as our wealth, our organization, bur 
leadership, are impassioned "by this supreme hunger, {or 
the salvation of men.. ' "... 

.4. It is in this mighty, supreme passion that is con- 
served and preserved our theology. Scholarship how- 
soever fortified by learned leaders and endowed, and 
equipped institutions, cannot preserve the theology of 
Christianity and cause it .to function in the. salvation 
and constructive sanctification of the human race. It 



THE SUPBEME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 145 

takes something more than learning and organization. 
It must be shot through and through with this compas- 
sionate concern for the salvation of men. It is in the 
centers of spiritual unconcern for men where the drift 
in theology is found. Wherever soul-winning and 
compassionate evangelism are found there the old truth 
revealed in God's Word stands forth as a mighty fac- 
tor. When the soul ceases to yearn for the salvation 
of men it cares less and less for the authority of God 
and the truth revealed in His book; it clings less and 
less to the eternals revealed in His book and vouch- 
safe in Christ's salvation. If we would guard the 
truth in our schools and their loyalty to the authority 
of God's Word, we should keep warm the fires of soul- 
winning and the compassionate hunger of evangelism. 

5. It is this spirit of compassion for a lost world on 
which we are to depend for our missionaries, our min- 
isters, and our gospel workers of all lines. 

It was this spirit in the heart of the Father God and 
His Son, our Saviour, that caused Jesus to leave heav- 
en and take up the cross and all of its contumely and 
cruelty. It is this spirit that has supplied the heroic 
ministries of the past with men and women. It is in 
the folds of this wonderful garment of life and salva- 
tion in which we find "the motives that have led and 
backed and pushed forward all the heroic missionaries 
of Jesus Christ in all lands and in all times. And 
upon this we are to depend for the supplies and re- 
cruits in the coming great day of conquest for our 
Saviour. 



146 BAPTIST DOCTRINES 

VI. What Feeds This Compassion? 

I close this discussion with some thoughts about 
the sources of supply for this compassionate concern 
for lost men. How may one's heart be encouraged and 
fed in this matter? How may we find fellowship with 
Jesus Christ in His strong crying over a lost world? 
This is a pertinent and important question. I would 
answer in several ways. 

1. By close companionship with Jesus Christ, study- 
ing His words, catching His spirit, being moved by 
the motives that moved Him, putting one's self under 
absolute surrender to all of His commands, and seek- 
ing in Him the spiritual sources of life. 

2. By a constant study of the Word of God, seek- 
ing its hidden resources, spiritually interpreting its 
truth, honestly recognizing all the pressure of its 
inspired authority, filling the soul with its promises, 
revelling in its riches, bringing from its hidden depths 
the spiritual juices that fatten life. 

It will be found especially helpful to study the Word 
of God on the nature, perils, dangers, punishments 
and awful extremes of sin, seeing what sin does in 
and through and by and with the sinner. 

3. By prayer — constant, secret and soulful importun- 
ity to God. 

No man can find this compassion of soul who neg- 
lects secret prayer. God will transplant into the soul 
of the secret supplicator this burning passion for the 
salvation of men. It is in supplication that we find 
the closest communion with God and the best and 
most helpful climate in which to grow into His like- 
ness, find His spirit. 



THE SUPREME PASSION OF THE GOSPEL 147 

4. By a revaluation of the souls of men. 

One of our sins to-day is that we care so little for 
the immortal spirits of men. We should seek their 
value by studying the estimates put on them by God. 
We should see to what length He has gone in creation, 
in providence, and in salvation for the souls of men. 
The best estimate we can find of the value of the 
immortal soul of man is in the agonies of Gethsemane 
and on the two arms of the cross of Calvary. We 
should behold the Saviour in His sufferings and re- 
member that it was all for the sake of lost men. 

5. The flame of this compassion is fed by a con- 
stant and persistent effort in the salvation of men. 
It matters not how much we study the Word of God 
and find there the condition and peril and destiny of 
lost men, it matters not how much we pray and seek com- 
munion with God, it matters not how much we may value 
the souls of men, if we do not personally seek to give 
time and energy and spiritual effort in their redemp- 
tion our hearts will not glow and burn for their salva- 
tion. It is in the fields of activity in soul-winning 
where we will find the most glowing examples of this 
supreme passion of the gospel. 

My prayer and purpose in this message is to help 
my brethren in Christ everywhere to catch this com- 
passion so wonderfully wrought out and ghten to us in 
the ministry of Jesus Christ and under the leadership 
of the divine Spirit, and carry- with burning zeal the 
gospel message in the power of the divine Spirit to 
a lost humanity everywhere. 



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